The Tale of the Terrified Tiger

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a tiger named QD. One evening, he heard a boy talking about a dried persimmon, which seemed to frighten him. Curiosity overcame him, and he reasoned that a dried persimmon must indeed be something fearful. He turned around quietly, eager to distance himself from this mysterious object.

As fate would have it, at that very moment, a thief broke into a nearby house with the intention of stealing a cow. It was dark, and the unsuspecting thief mistakenly grabbed the tail of what he believed to be a cow. The tiger, already anxious about the dried persimmon, was convinced that it was indeed this fierce creature that had caught his tail. Without turning to see what it actually was, the tiger leaped over the gate and fled toward the forest in a panic.

Meanwhile, the thief was filled with terror. He quickly realized that he had clutched the tail of a tiger instead of a cow. Fearful for his life, he couldn’t bring himself to let go and held on tightly as the animal sprinted across the countryside.

Eventually, the tiger ran so far away from the village that he was sure the frightening persimmon would no longer catch him by the tail. The thief, however, could cling on no longer and fell by the wayside. Still, the tiger did not stop; he continued running, relieved to be free from the phantom fear that had haunted him.

The tale reminds us of the power of imagination and the comedic turns that fear can take, where a simple dried persimmon can send a mighty tiger running in panic.