The King of the Sparrows

The King of the Sparrows

Once upon a time, a little house stood in a Korean village, its roof thick with green vines. Pumpkins and melons sprouted beside its walls in spring. In summer, broad leaves kept it cool, and sparrows chirped beneath the eaves.

The owner of the house loved birds. Every morning he would pour out a handful of grain near the porch and say:

“Have breakfast, neighbors. Just leave some for me too.”

The sparrows, of course, promised nothing. They just chirped merrily and pecked at the millet.

One morning, a great flurry of chirping rose beside the roof. A young sparrow, only just learning to fly, had caught his foot in a bamboo blind. The harder he struggled, the more frightened he became.

The man carefully climbed onto the porch.

“Calm down, little one. I won’t hurt you.”

The man freed the little foot, took the bird indoors, and kept him warm. He fed him tiny grains for several days until the foot healed.

When the sparrow could fly well, the owner took it outside and opened his palms.

“Fly.”

The sparrow flew to the roof, circled the house as though saying goodbye, and vanished into the sky.

But he was going somewhere very particular.

Far beyond the rice fields, rivers, and pine-covered hills stood the Sparrow Capital. On its highest roof lived the King of Sparrows.

The young sparrow flew to him and told him:

“Your Majesty, a man saved me when I was wounded. He feeds the birds and never drives us away from his home.”

The king gathered his advisers.

“We must remember good friends,” he said. “What shall we give this man?”

The advisors offered gold, silk, precious stones, rice, horses, beautiful dishes and many other things.

“A sparrow cannot carry all this,” the king remarked.

Then the court magician brought one small seed.

“Everything will fit inside this.”

The king whispered magic words over the seed and gave it to the young sparrow.

“Give it only to the one who saved you.”

The bird flew back.

The next morning, the man heard a familiar chirping. The sparrow perched at his window with a seed in his beak.

He placed it in the man’s palm.

“Is this for me?” the man asked in surprise.

The sparrow nodded so eagerly that he almost fell off the window frame.

The man showed the seed to his wife.

“Our little friend must have brought a gift.”

“Then let’s plant it,” she said. “You don’t throw away gifts from friends.”

In the spring, they planted a seed near the sunny wall.

Soon a sprout appeared from the ground. It grew so fast that the husband joked every day:

“If this continues, tomorrow the vine will reach the clouds.”

It didn’t reach the clouds, but it wrapped around the entire wall and part of the roof. Among the large green leaves, a single pumpkin grew. It became bigger, rounder, and heavier.

“Shall we take it down?” the husband asked.

“Let it ripen,” his wife answered.

In the fall, the pumpkin turned golden.

The couple carried it into the house and carefully cut it open.

And then a miracle happened.

First, a little tablecloth unfolded from the pumpkin. It spread itself across the table, growing to the size of a splendid coverlet.

Then a beautiful teapot, cups and a box of fragrant tea appeared.

Then came bags of rice, rolls of warm cloth, seeds for the garden, and a small chest of coins.

“There is more here than our storeroom has held in ten years!” the man exclaimed.

But the gifts did not end there.

Wooden musical instruments, small lanterns and even a folding screen with painted mountains jumped out of the pumpkin.

The couple laughed.

“The King of Sparrows must have decided to arrange a whole holiday for us.”

They shared the gifts. Some rice went to elderly neighbors, cloth went to families in need of warm clothes, and the coins paid for repairs to the village well.

They invited the children to celebrate. Lanterns shone in the yard, and village musicians played until evening.

The news about the magic pumpkin spread quickly.

There lived a man in the neighborhood who was terribly annoyed by sparrows.

“They have been chirping since morning! They are pecking at the grain! They are sitting on the roof!” he grumbled.

Hearing about the gift, he suddenly changed his mind.

“So, all I have to do is save the sparrow, and the King of Sparrows will send me treasures?”

The next day he poured the grain near the porch and began to wait.

The sparrows flew in, but they were careful. They remembered well how he had chased them away earlier.

Then the man decided to pretend that one bird needed help. He placed a small basket near the house, put the grain in it, and when the sparrow flew inside, he covered the basket with a cloth.

“Now I shall ‘rescue’ you,” he whispered.

But the sparrow slipped through a gap and flew straight to the Sparrow Capital.

The king listened to him and shook his head.

“Good deeds done only for the sake of a reward are easy to recognize.”

But he did not want to punish anyone.

“Give him a seed. Let it grow something to match his intentions.”

The sparrow brought the seed to the greedy neighbor.

“Aha!” the man cried happily. “It worked!”

He planted the seed, watered it twice as often as necessary, and checked every day to see if a pumpkin had appeared.

The vine grew incredibly thick. Twelve pumpkins ripened on it at once.

“I will be richer than the king!” he said joyfully.

In the fall, he gathered all the pumpkins and locked the door so that no one would see the treasures.

He sawed the first one.

A whole troupe of tiny dancers jumped out of there.

“A celebration!” they shouted, beating their drums.

“Please be quieter!” the man begged.

He opened the second pumpkin.

Dozens of paper kites flew out, trailing strings around the room and catching on the beams.

The third one released a cloud of feathers.

The fourth released thirty wooden spoons, which began drumming on the pots all by themselves.

Balls rolled out of the fifth one. Dolls jumped out of the sixth one and began to sing.

The man was already approaching the seventh one very cautiously.

“Maybe there is gold here?”

Instead of gold, an enormous ball of thread bounced out, winding itself around a chair, the table, and the man himself.

When his wife came home, she found him tangled in the middle of the room, with paper kites overhead, spoons drumming, and tiny dancers on the cupboard.

She was silent for a long time, and then she laughed.

“Well, how is my rich man?”

“Help me get out first.”

The kind neighbor came to see what the noise was about. Without teasing, he helped tidy the room and even fed the little magical musicians. By evening, they had all vanished as strangely as they had appeared.

The jealous man sat on his porch, watching sparrows gather crumbs.

“I understand now,” he said at last. “Your pumpkin was a reward for kindness. I only wanted the reward.”

“It is never too late to begin again,” his neighbor replied.

After that, he stopped chasing the birds away. He hung a little shelf beneath the roof with water for them and left grain there every winter.

The following spring, a family of sparrows settled on his roof.

No more magic pumpkins appeared.

One morning, he woke to loud chirping. Outside, five young sparrows were learning to fly among the green vines.

He smiled.

And this time it seemed to him that he had finally received his reward.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨