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Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales Part B

Retribution
(Chinese Water Carrier from Wikipedia Commons)
Plot:  There once was a boy named Ma who lived with his father. From his window, he can see the terrace of his neighbor Old Wang. One day Ma saw from his window Old Wang watering his flowers. Then he sees a water boy offering to help Old Wang water his flowers. He waves him away but the water boy climbs up anyway. Old Wang and the water boy struggle and Old Wang pushes the water boy away where he falls and dies. Worried about being discovered, Old Wang carries the body to the water edge and leaves it there. Ma decides to say nothing. Everyone in the village assumes he slipped and fell to his death. Nine years later, Ma sees the water carrier going into the home of the wealthy Lis. He had come back to earth to be reborn into the Li family. Seven more years pass and the young Li has grown into a small child and is playing with his pigeons. The pigeons land in Old Wang's garden where he is watering his flowers. The boy throws rocks at the pigeons to get them to leave and one accidentally hits Old Wang and he falls off the terrace and dies. His family finds him on the ground and assumes he slipped and fell and bury him.

Lesson: The lesson in this story is that karma will come back and get you if you do bad things.

Idea: I liked this story and am having a hard time thinking of a similar premise that would give the lesson the same feel with a rebirth. I would probably just retell the story as I read it and not change anything.

Story Source: From The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhem

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