The Emperor and the Mouse

Once upon a time, there lived an emperor who was quite foolish. All he cared about was eating well, dressing splendidly, and squeezing as much money as he could from his people.

One day, a mouse appeared in the emperor's golden chambers. The emperor, who had never seen a mouse before, was terrified and assumed it was some kind of evil spirit. In his fear, he hid in the far corners of the palace and didn’t show his face in the throne room for days. The military and civil officials held a council and concluded that a shapeshifter had appeared in the palace.

Time passed, and the mouse noticed that everyone was too afraid to chase it away—both the emperor and his officials. It grew bolder, swishing its tail and strutting back and forth through the golden chambers every day. It gnawed through the emperor’s dragon-embroidered robe and chewed on his jade-encrusted belt. The emperor and his officials were more frightened than ever. The military suggested finding someone to capture the monster, while the civil officials advised offering prayers and sacrifices to appease it. The emperor’s advisors were at a complete loss and eventually decided to follow both suggestions: they would bow three times to the creature every morning and evening, burn incense at dawn and dusk, and quickly put up notices seeking wise and capable individuals to capture the strange beast. The notices depicted a mouse and read: *"Whoever captures the shapeshifter will receive ten thousand gold ingots and a thousand bolts of colored satin."*

A young peasant saw the notice and found it amusing—it wasn’t a shapeshifter depicted there, just an ordinary mouse. He decided to catch it. Early in the morning, he hid a large cat in his sleeve and headed to the palace. When he arrived, he saw the emperor and his officials kneeling before an altar, bowing repeatedly. On the table sat the mouse, perched on its hind legs, holding a buttery pastry in its front paws and munching away. The peasant looked at these foolish, stubborn men and burst out laughing: they weren’t afraid of a wolf or a lynx, but of an ordinary mouse. Hearing the laughter, the emperor and his officials turned their heads and saw the peasant. They immediately wanted to tie him up and put him on trial, but the peasant calmly said:

"Don’t worry, please. I’ve come to catch the shapeshifter!"

With that, he released the cat. The cat saw the mouse, pounced on the altar, and killed it. The emperor and his officials were stunned, their eyes wide and mouths agape. They had never seen a mouse before, let alone a cat.

The peasant picked up the cat and started to leave. The emperor panicked, trying to stop him and pleading:

"If you leave, what if some evil spirit appears again? What will we do then? Stay in the palace and guard the emperor!"

But the peasant refused. The emperor then offered him ten thousand gold ingots and an additional thousand bolts of satin. Finally, the peasant agreed to leave his beast—which was called a cat and caught all sorts of evil spirits—with the emperor.

The peasant returned home and distributed the gold and satin to the poor. A greedy landowner heard about this and thought, *"If only I could get ten thousand gold ingots and a thousand bolts of satin! There would be no one richer than me in the entire realm."* The more he thought about it, the more his greed burned. Around that time, the emperor decided to gather concubines for his palace and sent people in all directions to search for beautiful maidens. But who would willingly give their daughter to the emperor as a concubine? Only the rich landowner was delighted. *"This is my lucky break,"* he thought. *"Such an opportunity comes once in a thousand years."* He fetched a decorated wedding palanquin, dressed up his daughter, and took her to the emperor, thinking, *"I’ll get even more gold and satin than that peasant did."* But all his hopes were dashed. When the landowner brought his daughter to the emperor, the emperor said:

"There are no more shapeshifters in the palace. The cat has killed them all. So I grant you this cat, for which I paid ten thousand gold ingots and a thousand bolts of satin."

And so, the landowner received the cat in exchange for his daughter. He was bitter and resentful, but how could he dare to defy the emperor? There was nothing he could do. The landowner hung his head in sorrow and returned home with the cat.

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The Emperor and the Mouse

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