How Cha Turned into a Dragon

Once upon a time, there lived a man named Cha. His father had long since passed away, and his mother worked as a day laborer. Cha himself tended cows for a wealthy landowner.

One day, he went to a field to mow grass. He mowed an entire meadow, filled a sack, and headed home. The next day, he returned to the same spot and saw that the grass was as if it had never been mowed: thick, tall, and lush. Surprised, he mowed the entire meadow again and carried the grass home. When Cha came to the spot for the third time, he saw the same thing: the meadow had grown back completely.

From then on, Cha began coming to that spot every day, and each time the grass grew back overnight as if a month had passed. One day, Cha wondered: what was going on? The day before, cows had grazed there and eaten all the grass, yet today it was as if no cow had ever been there. Cha decided to examine the roots of this extraordinary grass. He dug into the soil, pulled out a root, and suddenly saw something glowing in the ground. Cha reached in and pulled out a pearl. A beautiful pearl that sparkled and shimmered in the sunlight! Overjoyed, Cha ran home to show his mother the treasure.

His mother admired the pearl and placed it in a bowl of rice. From that day on, no matter how much rice Cha and his mother ate, the bowl always remained full. At first, his mother was surprised, but then she realized the pearl was magical. She hid it in a money box, and from that day on, the family never ran out of money.

Cha and his mother began to live in wealth and comfort. But the richer Cha became, the greedier he grew. One day, neighbors came to borrow flour and money.

"I won't give them anything," Cha told his mother. "There are too many of them, lazy good-for-nothings!"

And he chased the neighbors away.

Another time, a poor woman asked to spend the night at their house. Cha refused to let her in, fearing she might rob them.

Once, Cha had been a cheerful and kind young man, but now he was becoming angrier and more miserly.

That year, there was a terrible famine. The neighbors were starving; no one had any rice left, and people were eating tree bark. But Cha's granaries were overflowing with grain, and he even fed his chickens with rice. The neighbors decided to go to Cha one last time to ask for rice on loan.

"I won't even talk to them. I'd rather leave," Cha said when he found out.

He took his pearl, put it in his mouth, and left the house.

Cha walked to the forest and sat down on a rock to rest. He sat for a while and fell asleep, and in his sleep, he accidentally swallowed the pearl.

He woke up from unbearable thirst. His stomach burned as if a fire were raging inside, and his tongue and throat were parched. Cha returned home, drank two buckets of water, but still felt thirsty. Then he went to the river, lay on his stomach, and began drinking directly from the river. He drank and drank, consuming half the river, but his thirst only grew stronger. Suddenly, Cha felt his whole body aching, his head pounding, and his arms and legs cramping. Breathing became difficult, his vision blurred, and his thirst intensified.

With great effort, Cha crawled closer to the river, leaned over, and saw in the water the reflection of a terrifying dragon with monstrous fangs, curved claws on hairy paws, and a long, scaly tail. Flames and smoke burst from the dragon's mouth, and its fangs clicked menacingly.

Suddenly, Cha realized it was his own reflection. He was terrified, howled, and thrashed about. But all his frenzy was in vain: he could not turn back into a human.

And so, Cha was punished for his greed!

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How Cha Turned into a Dragon

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