The Grateful Magpie
은혜 갚은 까치
A scholar saves a magpie from a snake. Later, the bird strikes a temple bell three times to save him; the teller no longer remembers how the snake’s story ends.
Story at a Glance
A scholar travels to Seoul to sit the civil-service examination. On the road, he sees a snake trying to eat a magpie and shoots it. Later, he sleeps at a temple and wakes with the snake coiled around him. The rescued magpie rings the bell three times and dies beneath it. The teller remembers the rescue but not whether the snake then left or became a dragon.
The Folktale — Faithfully Retold
In a 2009 Pyeongchang telling, a scholar sets out for Seoul to take the civil-service examination. As evening falls, he hears a magpie and sees a snake trying to catch it. He shoots the snake with his bow. The bird escapes. The storyteller remarks that a textbook illustration had helped her remember the scene.
The scholar continues into the mountains and sleeps at a temple. Before dawn he feels short of breath and wakes to find the snake wrapped tightly around his body. It says it is to become a dragon and that hearing a temple bell ring three times will allow that transformation. The scholar thinks he will die: he cannot reach the bell.
Then the magpie he saved flies to the temple bell and strikes it with its head three times. The bell rings; the bird falls dead. The scholar understands that the magpie has repaid the life he protected. The storyteller cannot recall whether the snake releases the scholar or becomes a dragon, so the retelling does not settle its fate.
Korean Context in This Story
This oral telling links animal gratitude to the temple bell and the scholar’s dangerous encounter with a snake. A separate Busan version has three magpies and a more settled rescue; it should not be blended into this Pyeongchang teller’s uncertain recollection.
Versions and Sources
Selected oral account: Korean Oral Literature Compendium, POKS.GUBI.GUBI.2_7018, told by Baek Sun-ja in Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang, on 2 February 2009. The teller explicitly says she has forgotten whether the snake left or became a dragon. We preserve that uncertainty. Comparison: Busan Oral Culture series, vol. 11, “A Magpie’s Gratitude” records three magpies; those details are not imported here.
Retold in original English prose.
Source and plot checked 2026-10-04. See the source note for whether the basis is a primary text, oral record, or scholarly summary.