The Tiger’s Whisker
INSPIRATIONAL, 3 Aug 2015
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
A Korean Folktale
A woman came to seek help from a famous herbalist.
“My husband is unkind since he returned from the war. If he does not like the food I prepared for him, he pushes it away; sometimes he sits on top of a hill, staring for hours into the distance when he should work in the field. Can you prepare a potion that will cure him?”
The herbalist said, “I can make such a potion, but the most important ingredient is the whisker of a living tiger.” The woman was worried: “How can I get a whisker from a living tiger?” “You will find a way.” The herbalist said.
The woman went out that night and walked towards the cave where the tiger was known to live, but she did not dare to go too close and returned without a whisker. The next night, she prepared a bowl of rice and meat sauce, and went again a little closer, and waited for the tiger, but he did not come. This went on for six months. Each time, she dared to go a little closer, and finally the tiger ate the food she brought him. She did that for several nights.
One night she said to the tiger, “Don’t be angry, but I need one of your whiskers”, and pulled one out. The tiger calmly let her pull it. Happily, she ran to the herbalist and showed him her find. He examined the whisker carefully, and found that it was from a real living tiger. Then he threw it into his fireplace and burnt it.
The woman was incredulous. “What have you done with my precious whisker, your destroyed it, how can you now make the potion for my husband?”
The herbalist replied, “You don’t need any potion. If you have been able to tame a blood-thirsty tiger with patience and kindness, don’t you think you can equally tame a man?”
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Dietrich Fischer, born in 1941 in Münsingen, Switzerland, got a Licentiate in Mathematics from the University of Bern 1968 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University 1976. 1986-88 he was a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Princeton University. He has taught mathematics, computer science, economics and peace studies at various universities and been a consultant to the United Nations.
Excerpted from Dietrich Fischer’s Stories to Inspire You – TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 3 Aug 2015.
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