Vietnamese Tale
The Carambola Tree and the Magic Raven
In this traditional Vietnamese tale you will find out about a magic raven and about why it’s not worth being greedy. You’ll also learn about a tasty exotic fruit.
A long time ago, in a faraway land, there lived and ruled a king. One day, the king took it into his head that if he could only touch the moon he would become famous and admired all over the world.
He was so consumed by the idea he couldn’t think about anything else and forgot to rule his kingdom altogether. All he did every day was rack his brain to try to figure out how he could get high enough in the sky to touch the moon. When he slept, all he ever dreamed about was reaching up
The king spent many long days and nights thinking about nothing else but the chalky moon, and one day he finally came up with
He immediately sent for the royal carpenter and ordered him to build
He spent the next few days pacing back and forth, thinking, measuring, calculating, and drawing, but he ripped up
After a week had passed, the impatient king could no longer bear to watch the carpenter calculating and measuring silly drawings instead of just building his tall tower, and so he decided to pay him a visit. He was very angry and frustrated, and he threatened:
“You have three days to build me…