The Mirror that Made Trouble

The Mirror that Made Trouble

Long ago, when mirrors were rare and a trip from a distant village to Seoul seemed like an adventure halfway across the world, there lived a miller named Kim.

Kim had a large family: a wife, two daughters, elderly parents, a cat, a dog, and a donkey so stubborn that everyone considered him a member of the family.

One day, Kim set off for the capital to sell grain.

“Bring me a nice ribbon,” asked the eldest daughter.

“And I need a hairpin,” said the youngest.

“I don’t need anything,” said the wife, and then she thought and added, “Except for some good fabric.”

His mother asked for tea and his father for a new pipe. The donkey, if he could speak, would probably have asked for a sack of carrots.

Kim set off for Seoul.

The capital stunned him. There were so many people on the streets that it seemed as if the entire kingdom had decided to meet in one place. The shops were full of silks, metal utensils gleamed, and the smell of tea, sweets, and fresh pastries filled the air.

Kim had bought everyone’s gifts and was about to leave when a shopkeeper said:

“If you want to see a real wonder, go across the street. They sell a round thing that has a very familiar face in it.”

“A familiar face?” Kim asked.

He crossed the street and saw a round, polished disk on the counter.

There was a man in it.

Kim leaned closer.

The man leaned in too.

Kim raised an eyebrow.

The stranger did the same.

Kim quickly looked around.

There was no one behind him.

He looked at the disk again.

The man was back.

“I’ve seen you somewhere,” Kim muttered.

He smiled. The man smiled too.

Kim made a funny face. The stranger immediately responded in exactly the same way.

“That’s strange!”

Kim bought the round object and brought it home in a little box.

First, he handed out the gifts. His daughters twirled with their ribbons in front of Grandma, Grandpa examined his new pipe, and his wife smoothed out the fabric.

Then Kim left the box on the table and went to check on the mill.

“What is this?” asked the eldest daughter.

She opened the box.

The girl in the mirror looked at her in surprise.

“Mom! There’s a girl here!”

The younger sister ran up.

“Let me see!”

Now another girl appeared in the round disk.

“She changes too!” the younger girl whispered.

Kim's wife took the thing from her daughters.

And saw a woman about her age.

“Who is she?” his wife demanded. “And why has my husband brought her home from Seoul?”

“Perhaps she lives inside the box,” one daughter suggested.

Grandma came to see what the noise was about.

“What are you all shouting about?”

They handed her a mirror.

Grandma looked and recoiled in surprise.

“There's some old lady there! And she's looking right at me!”

“See?” cried Kim’s wife. “There is a whole family in this thing!”

Hearing the noise, grandfather came in.

“What happened?”

“Look for yourself.”

Grandfather looked into the mirror.

“This is too much!” he said. “There is an old man my age in there, looking around as though this house belongs to him!”

Everyone spoke at the same time.

“A young woman!”

“No, an old woman!”

“There’s a girl!”

“I saw an old man!”

The cat sat on a bench, looking deeply disappointed in human intelligence.

At that moment Kim returned.

“What is all this commotion in my house?”

His wife handed him a round disk.

“Explain who you brought from the capital!”

Kim looked.

There was the same familiar man from the shop.

“Ah!” Kim exclaimed. “There he is! I couldn’t remember who he was.”

“So you know him?” his wife asked suspiciously.

“No… well… I feel as though I do.”

Now even Kim was confused.

The family took the strange object to the village judge, who was said to know the answer to almost every question. At least, that was what he claimed.

The judge solemnly accepted the box.

"So you're saying that different people appear inside in turn?"

“Exactly, Your Honor.”

The judge held up the mirror.

A man in a judge's hat looked at him.

The judge froze.

"Who allowed another judge to come to my village?"

"See!" the family whispered. "We told you so!"

The judge turned the mirror to the left. The stranger turned too.

He turned it right, and the stranger copied him again.

"He's also imitating me!"

There was such a commotion in the hall that the clerk stopped writing down the cases, and the watchman looked outside to see if the festival had begun.

Just then, the royal inspector from the capital arrived in the village.

Hearing the argument, he went inside.

“What’s going on here?”

The judge set the disk on a cushion.

“Here is the cause. This object shows strangers and has already set a whole family arguing. Now another judge is trying to take my place!”

The inspector looked at the mirror.

Then at the judge.

Then back at the mirror.

He could barely contain a smile.

“It is a mirror. Those people are your reflections.”

“A mir… what?” Kim asked.

“It shows you your own reflection. Watch.”

The inspector raised his right hand. The man in the mirror did the same.

“Now you try,” he told the judge.

The judge lifted off his hat. So did the judge in the mirror.

Kim’s wife looked cautiously.

“So this woman… is it me?”

“That’s right.”

The daughters simultaneously reached for the mirror.

“And the girls?”

“You yourselves.”

The grandmother looked again, fixed her hair and said:

“Hmm. That old woman is rather pretty, actually.”

Everyone fell silent.

And then Kim laughed.

The daughters laughed after him. Then his wife, grandfather, grandmother, the judge and even the strict clerk.

They laughed for so long that the guard looked inside again.

“What happened now?”

“We have finally met ourselves!” the judge replied.

The inspector said:

“A mirror can help with more than your hair. Before getting angry with someone, it can remind you to ask whether you are seeing your own fears and suspicions.”

The judge nodded solemnly, as though he had been about to say exactly that.

Kim's family returned home in great spirits.

From then on, the mirror hung in the best room. At first, everyone approached it ten times a day. Grandpa practiced a serious expression. The daughters tried on new hairstyles. Grandma smiled at her reflection every time.

And Kim’s wife said one day:

“I’m glad you bought it.”

“I think so too.”

“But next time you bring something strange from Seoul, explain what it is first.”

Kim agreed.

Soon, several more mirrors appeared in the village. People were no longer afraid of the “strangers” inside, and the shopkeepers in Seoul wondered why so many customers were suddenly coming from one distant village.

And the old family cat never understood what all the fuss was about. He looked in the mirror once, saw a cat, sniffed the glass, and went to sleep.

Perhaps that is why he turned out to be the wisest in this story.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨