Folk Tale

Responsibility Vietnamese Folk Tale: The Tiger    https://sites.google.com/site/valueslessons  

A fisherman was caring for his ageing mother. Every evening he would cast his nets into the river, and every morning he would collect the fish that had been caught in them. This is how they lived. 

One morning he discovered that one of his nets had been torn open and was empty. He repaired the net and in the evening cast his many nets into the river as usual. 

The next morning he was alarmed to discover that all of his nets had been torn and twisted, and there was not a single fish in any of them! He spent the day carefully repairing the nets, and set them out in the evening. But the next morning he came upon the same sad scene. Something strong had torn the nets. What could it be? He felt afraid. 

This occurred day after day until, seeing his dear mother weakening from lack of food, he determined to spend an entire night hidden in the shadows beside the river and to capture whatever was responsible. 

The next morning his body was found, lifeless, beside the flowing river. To the villagers, this was clearly the work of a tiger! They walked the forest paths in fear. 

The fisherman's mother grieved deeply for her only son, and visited his grave daily. One evening, lost in grief, as she was returning home from the graveyard she came upon a tiger. Upset as she was, she challenged him: 

'Are you the one who killed my son? What am I to do now? I shall soon die of sadness and hunger.' 

The tiger just stood there meekly. 'Will you provide for me? Will you do for me as my son did?' The tiger hung his head, but the woman simply turned her back on him and slowly walked home. 

The next day, and every week after, she found a deer or a boar laid before the doorstep of her house. She would cook and eat her fill, then sell the rest of the meat at the market. 

For two months this went on before she decided to find out who was being so generous to her. Could it possibly be the tiger? She stayed awake the whole night until, toward dawn, she saw the tiger coming along dragging a deer, which he laid at her door. She invited him in, and it wasn't long before a friendship developed between them; he visited every time he brought game. 

Once, when he was ill, he came to her. She nursed him in her home until he was well enough to return to the forest. 

And so it was until the old woman lay dying. 

'Please promise me you will no longer kill people,' she said. 

The tiger hung his head low, then licked her hand. He remained by her side all through the night. 

After she died the villagers found enough wild game piled before her front door to pay for a big funeral. And during the funeral the forest was filled with the roaring of a tiger.

Questions

1. Why did the fisherman wait a while before staying up all night to capture what was destroying the nets? (He was afraid.)

2. Why did he decide to stay up, even though he was afraid? (His mother needed the food.)

3. Who showed responsibility in this story? How?

Optional Colouring In: A picture of a tiger is found at  http://www.felinest.com/images/line-drawing-12-sm.jpg

Source: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bltiger.htm  Image Sources: http://www.yedraw.com/forest-animals/tiger-7.jpg  https://www.pinterest.es/pin/558376053793606813/