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The Tale of Geckos

Once upon a time, a poor couple who named Thach Sung lived in a hut next to a market. They begged others to live. Although their lives were difficult, they were people who had ambitions. They had saved a lot of money which was hidden under ground in their hut but they still acted as poor people and continued praying.
vietnamese fairy tales
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One night, when Mr. Thach Sung was coming home he saw two buffaloes were fighting.
His experience told him that year the water would rise over ground very much and of course they couldn’t pick up so he dig his money and bought rice by all money he had. The August that year, a big flood occurred. Therefore, they earned a lot of money by selling rice for others. 
Then they stopped spaying and started lending others money to take interest. A short time later, they became rich people. Mr. Thach Sung had bought many buffaloes, farmland for next years but he wanted to be richer. He cooperated with bandits in the region, shared what they robbed, then sold them. Ten years later, Mr. Thach Sung now became the richest man in the region but his ambition was also binger than that he wanted to become nobles. He presented to King very much treasures. Of course, the King let him supervised a region. He left his home, came to the capital and built a building where could contain thousands of people. He and his wife now lived in luxury that none could reach. 
That time, in the capital a man, named Vuong, related to the Queen who also was known for his richness participated a party which Mr. Thach Sung was in. after talking few minutes the topic of conversation change into that who was richer than the other. 
“All my servants wore silk clothes. Whenever Tet came I had to bought tons of silk for them.” said Vuong 
“My servants must eat as much as all people who live in a districts” said Mr. Thach Sung 
“I use sugar instead of wood to cook” Vuong said
“I use millions of candle to heat my rooms in the winter” said Mr. Thach Sung
After hours, a man interupted their words: “If you two only say about what you have without proving we couldn’t decided who was richer than other. You must show up and I think person who is loser will have to give the other three case of gold.”
They agreed. The date came. First, Vuong made his servants hung silk above all bed in his house but Mr. Thach Sung made his servant hung silk on all ceiling in his house. Vuong used glass on his roof that made his home look like a jewel but Thach Sung forced his servants cut alabaster and paved them on the yard font of his house that made people admire.
The contest continued. Thach Sung asked Vuong: “Do you have coral?” 
Vuong showed people a big branch of coral and asked him: “Do you have Rhino horns?” 
Thach Sung showed people a teapot and teacups made by rhino horns. They showed people many other valuable things. Then they started showing people strange things. Thach Sung let them see a horse which could run a thousand miles a day but Vuong invited people came his garden to see a two-head deer. That time Thach Sung kept silent rather long. Everyone thought that he gave up but, for a while, he took out a gem and said: “I have a gem, if you bring it in the summer you will feel cool and in the winter you will feel warm. It is only one in the world”
Vuong was confused and was going to borrow Queen a gem but a nobless who sat next to him said in secret some words to him then he smiled and turned to Thach Sung and said: “I know you are a richest man I have ever seen but you also don’t have many things”
“What don’t I have? If you show me what I don’t have I will gift you all things a have and if you don’t you have to gift me all your assets” said Thach Sung. Then they signed their name on a commitment front all of people who was in the contest. For while Vuong said: “You don’t have “mẻ kho” (a traditional spices of Vietnam).” just hearing “mẻ kho”, Thach Sung startled he knew that thing when he was poor he had used it to cooked fish but when he became rich he had not ever used it again. He forced servants to find everywhere in his house but they didn’t find out.
Then winner was Vuong. Thach Sung had to give his assets to Vuong include his wife and his servants. He came back to the hut and regretted his assets he had lost. Then he died and transformed into a gecko which people nowday in Viet Nam call "Thach Sung". 
Today, people in Viet Nam say: Thach Sung lack "mẻ kho" to mean that none has enough all things 
THE END
 "Translated by Hung Nguyen"


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2. Vietnamese Fairy Tales - Stories in English and Vietnamese

This bilingual collection features 162 Vietnamese fairy tales in both English and Vietnamese, with stunning illustrations. Ideal for language learners and cultural enthusiasts. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

3. The Treasury of Fables

An enchanting collection of timeless fables, written in English and beautifully illustrated. Perfect for all ages, these stories offer valuable moral lessons. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books


Read more:
Tale 19. If Toad croaks, it will rain
Tale 20. Thach Sanh and Ly Thong Chapter 1
Tale 21. Thach Sanh and Ly Thong Chapter 2
Tale 16. The Tale of God of Kitchen
Tale 17. The Tale of Ba Bể Lake
List of Vietnamese fairy tales
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Truyện cổ tích Việt nam (For people who can read Vietnamese)
Vietnamese historical stories (For people who love history)
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BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese  fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has  its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!
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Thanh Giong

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Thuong Luong

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So dua - Coconut boy

Once upon a time, there in a village had a couple who worked as servants for a landlord. Although they were over fifty years old, they had ever not had a child. They were sad about that, but they had never given up to dream about a child. One day, it's a very hot day, when the wife was working in the field and felt very thirsty. She seeked for water, but she didn't see any but a little water in a skull which was in a hole beside an ancient tree. She had no choice but to drink it. Right the moment she drank, the feeling of cold water running from her throat to her stomach made her felt very comfortable. As a magic, she was pregnant after that short time. Then, the husband died before he got the happiness looking his child be born. After nine months and ten days, the wife gave birth a son but he didn't look like any child on the world. He had no feet, no leg, and even no body. He just had a head with full of eyes, nose, ear, hair and mouth on it. He didn't ugly but was ...
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Cruel-second mother

A  man had two wives and each wife gave birth to a son, Linh and Lang. Linh was child of the first wife and Lang was child of the other. Linh’s mother died early left him staying with father, the second mother and Lang. Lang was older than Ling five years old and treated Linh as his same mother brother but his mother didn’t thought that she hated Linh. When Linh grew up, his father let him to study in school because he was son of the first wife while Lang followed his father, worked on their field. Unfortunately, his father died, left assets which were accumulated in three generations, vast field, red roof house with large gardens around, ponds will full of fish. Although the second wife still treated Linh normal as if he was her son but in fact she implicitly planned to harm him to usurp asset because the fate of women, not first wife, and their children just inherited very little. One day, the second wife requested Lang and Linh to go to market to buy fire-wood. Before th...
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Thach Sanh and Ly Thong Chapter 1

Chap 1:  fight with huge snake  Once upon a time, a woodcutter and  his wife were over sixty years old but they had had not any children. Although they were sad, they still did good thing and hoped God would give them one child. At last, their kindness had come to King of heaven who requested his son to fly down and reincarnate to be the old couple’son. They had just enjoyed the happiness for a short time. Then, the old man died, before his son was born. Vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com After that, the woman gave birth to a beautiful, strength boy. She named him Thach Sach. The poor boy grew up with no father then his mother also left after few years living with him. They only left him an ax and a pair of shorts. Day by day, he went to forest, cut tree, split them then took to market to get money. When he was thirteen, king of heaven forced his servants down to teach him magic and martial arts. Then they was back heaven, Thach Sanh continued living alone in...
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Tam and Cam

Once upon a time, there had a little girl named Tam. Her mother died early so her father decided to remarry on purpose the stepmother would take care of his little daughter. The stepmother gave birth to a girl, named Cam after that. Then, her father died after few years. Tam had to live with her stepmother and her sister, Cam. Since the time, she was forced to work hard, all housework, while Cam had to do nothing. One day, the stepmother gave Tam and Cam each one a corf to caught fish. She promised that who caught full her corf would receive a piece of red silk. Tam and Cam went to field together. She was hard to catch fish while Cam only wondered around till afternoon and had nothing in her coft. Cam pointed at Tam’s coft and realised it is full, thinking seconds, she said gently: “sister Tam, your head is mud, you should wash it or mother will punish you” Belive Cam, Tam went to river nearly. She left her corf on the shore,  waded into water to wash. Cam, meanwhile, stayed on t...
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The Tale of the Hundred - knot Bamboo tree

Once upon a time, there had a boy who was poor, had no field. Therefore, he found the way to work for a landlord. He was healthy, worked hard and great in working so the landlord wanted him to work for him long time without any pay. One day, he called the boy to come. "You are honest and healthy. If you agree to work for me in three years without pay, I will let you marry with my only daughter after that." The boy agreed. He believed completely. He worked very hard, help the landlord turn richer that he could build more houses, buy more fields and cattles. Then, time passed. Three years nearly crossed, the boy always remembered his master's promise while his master, the landlord didn't want to do his promise. He in secret had found another boy for his daughter, a son of another landlord in that area. Therefore, what he need was a reason to refuse the boy. One day, he called the boy to come. "You have worked very hard for three years, waken early, slept late....
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