The eyelash

Long long ago, there lived an honest and hardworking old man in a village.
Now he was so old that he couldn’t work well and, what was worse, he lost his beloved wife a few years ago.
He said to himself,
“I’m so old and I can’t work well.
So poor am I that I have nothing to eat.
I also want to go to my wife in heaven soon.
I may as well be eaten by a fox as live a miserable life like this.”

He went into the eastern mountain and cried,
“Mr. Fox living in the eastern mountain, why don’t you eat me?”
The Fox answered him,
“I never eat a man who is honest.”
He went into the western mountain and cried,
“Mr. Fox living in the western mountain, why don’t you eat me?”
The Fox answered him,
“I never eat a man who is hardworking.”
He went into the southern mountain and cried,
“Mr. Fox living in the southern mountain, why don’t you eat me?”
The Fox answered him,
“I never eat a man who lost his wife.”
He went into the northern mountain and cried,
“Mr. Fox living in the northern mountain, why don’t you eat me?”
The Fox answered him,
“I never eat a man who is poor and has nothing to eat.
Instead, I’ll give you one of my eyelashes.
If you hold it and see a man, you can see his mind.”
When he did so in his village as he had been told, to his surprise, he understood what the man was thinking of.
He found the very few kind man, who helped him in his neighborhood, thanks to the eyelash.
He spent the rest of his life happily until he went to the heaven.

The end