Lazy tales

Given your culture, what's the most basic short tale you can think of?

Imagine you're with your 4th kid, it's 11 PM, you want to go to bed, but they ask for a story. You have to come up with something but you're tired and uninspired. In a few sentences, what do you say?

🇰🇷 Korea 🇰🇷

Once upon a time in the land of frogs, there was a frog mom and her frog son. To his mom's dismay, the son was insubordinate, so insubordinate in fact that he would always do the opposite of whatever she asked. The mother was growing old and, knowing that her son would disobey, she asked him to bury her next to the bank of the river after her departure.
Alas the day came, but the son, saddened by her passing, did not find the strength to disregard his mother's last wish. He buried her in the mud right next to the river.
Later that day, it started raining. The mud by the river got unstable, and the frog mom was swept away by the river. Her son, witnessing the event, cried profusely. From that day on, everytime it rained, the frog son cried. And that's why we say "to be a crying frog" today.

Sharon

🇨🇳 China 🇨🇳

There was once a beautiful lady, who happened to be the daughter of the king of the sky. She grew bored of the sumptuous life in her father's celestial palace, and decided to leave secretly. She found out about the earthly hardships but also its delights. Eventually, she fell in love with a man who plowed the earth for a living, and soon after they got married.
But the king of the sky heard of his daughter's wedding. In an outburst of rage, he condemned her to live in exile on the Moon, and allowed her to see her husband but once per year. Yet she was still unable to meet with him since he was still on Earth. The birds on Earth heard of their tragedy, and together, they built a bridge between the Earth and the Moon. Thanks to them, the two lovers were able meet again, albeit once per year.

Junjie

🇸🇳 Senegal 🇸🇳

In my village, there was an old man who was well-off after working his whole life. That year, the drought had been ruthless and left many with little left to eat. One night, the old man woke up his grandson, and told him: " - Bocar, you are to bring this bag of rice to the neighbor's house. Leave it by their doorstep before they wake up and come back to me."
Bocar did so, and upon his return, he asked his grandfather the reason he didn't go himself on the following day. " - That wouldn't be right. If you truly wish to help your neighbor, you should always do so discreetly. Now when they wake up, what will they think? They won't know who gave them that bag of rice, so they'll look at everyone in the street and think any one of them might be big-hearted. See Bocar, this is how you do the most good, and this is what makes you respectable."

Bassirou

🇩🇿 Algeria 🇩🇿 (ⵣ Kabylia ⵣ)

There was once a very poor family living in a small village. After painstaking work in the field, the grandfather was able to gather enough coin to buy a duck from the market, hoping to sell the eggs for profit. But the following day, the old man was astounded to find that the duck had laid a single golden egg. During the following weeks, the duck consistently laid a golden egg exactly once per day. It quickly became the man's bread and butter and provided the family with enough income to live comfortably.
Yet the old man soon grew wary of selling a single egg per day. Consumed by greed, he slaughtered the duck, hoping to sell all of the gold in its belly. After killing the animal, he searched thoroughly, but all the organs he could find were those of a normal duck. He had gutted his only source of income because of his greed and was left with nothing.

Wissam

🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇱🇹

Once upon a time, in a kingdom behind the nine mountains, there were 3 brothers who lived together in a single farm. The eldest was mean, the second was selfish, and the youngest was naive but big-hearted. One day, a messenger arrived from the king's castle. He announced that the queen was bedridden with mysterious fever. It was said her illness could only be cured by a violet lily, which grew in a cursed forest none of the brothers had ever dared to enter. Desperate, the king had promised the hand of the princess to whoever brought him the precious flower.
On the path into the woods, the first brother came across an elder woman, with crooked back and wrinkles, begging for something to eat. He had prepared plenty of food for his journey, yet he ignored her and went on. Soon after, he got lost in the forest. Then the second brother arrived, and when he saw the old lady, he strayed from his path to avoid her and got lost as well. Finally the youngest brother came, and he gave her the mere loaf of bread that he was carrying. Then all of a sudden, the lady's wrinkles disappeared and her back straightened. She thanked him, took his hand and led him to a clearing deep into the forest where he found the violet lily.
He brought it to the queen and married the princess. They lived happily ever after.

Miglė

Parting words

Initially, I had this idea long ago because I was curious to know whether there would be important differences or if all cultures converged to the same stories. Will they make sense to us? Can we somehow relate in some way to tales from somewhere else, and find equivalents in our own culture? I have only collected a few stories so far, so I don't want to draw any hasty conclusion (maybe later??). But it already seems some of the highlighted values are similar, even though they're conveyed in different ways.

Running the interviews for this has been exceptionnally fun. I have to say I tried not to influence people too much during these, but ultimately I'm the one writing and editing these stories, so I definitely missed some cultural clues and inadvertedly inserted some of mine.
It's not always easy for participants to get started because it's not as simple of a question as it sounds. It usually took a few minutes of asking the right questions, such as "what would your mom tell you as a kid?" or "what's a story that everyone knows where you come from?". But once they find the main idea, most participants were really willing to share and glad that someone's taking interest in things that they hold very dear themselves. Things that they may have been missing since they left their hometown. Things they could talk about for hours. It's such a wholesome moment listening to them talking that way. "Isn’t it lovely to hear people talk with such passion about something they really like, for instance, when I try to tell something I am passionate about, it becomes difficult to catch my breath, I tend to talk super fast I can even get a headache from the flow of my thoughts, ahh it’s crazy!"
- Miglė -

30.10.21