Skip to main content

Honorable thief

Long time ago when the country was reigned by Thanh Tong Le in Thang long (the old name of Ha noi) lived a great thief whatever he wanted he could find the way to get it. He used to make mandarins and landlord afraid.   
Mandarins and landlord had gone to catch him but they couldn’t touch to him he appeared and also disappeared as a wind. So, people called him Quan “gio” with “gio” was his nickname it meant wind.
vietnamese fairy tales
vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com
One day which was near Tet holiday the king pretended as a poor student traveled to have sight about people’s lives. He came and knocked on Quan gio’s door in accidental. The king show him his proverty and said pitifully:
“I teach children in Dong xuan and have saved some money to bring to home to manage this Tet holiday. Unfortunately”, he creamed, “when I was on my way my money was stolen by theifs. Now I had no way to go. Please, let me stay in here for a night, dear you.”
Quan gio gave him sympathy. He said:
“I will help you some money.”
The king observed his shabby house then asked:
“Why can you help me if you are not better than me.”
“I don’t want keep secret with you I am Quan gio. Because you meet unfortunate I will manage to help you get something.”, replied Quan gio.
Then Quan gio asked the king to sit, he added: “You may not know that I only steal from rich people and mandarins who had made bad things to have your wealth and never touched my hand on things belong to good people though they were rich. Now my friend you can taled me a person who had made bad things to have wealth I will steal from the house.”
The king spent a little while thinking then he said:
“Ba Van who lives in the east of castle he has a large store and is very rich.”
“I know him he lend people money and get very high interest. But let him doing I will steal from him as he get much more money.”, said Quan gio
“I know a person who lives near that. He recently buys some field and many buffaloes. Do you think we can steal.”, ssaid the king.
“No. Don’t do that. He and his family have worked very hard to have that thing. You may not know they always come to field as sun not yet rises and only if sun has downed they come home to cook. So I think I know a person who is storage keeper and I know that he often steal from the storage.”, said Quan gio.
“Really?”, said the king suspiciously.
“I have getten my check. Every day he brings some from the storage and uses them to by houses, fields I think you can not count how much assets he has.”, said Quan gio.
They king can keeped himself not being curious to know how was Quan gio great in steal so he asked him to let he followed. Though Quan gio felt to be hesitant but the king insisted and then he agreed.
“I will find proofs that will proved that he has stolen from the storage before steal anything but you have to keep you to be silent”, said Quan gio.
Then they two nad their way toward the storage keeper house in the dark. Quan gio asked the king to wait him for unlocking the door then he hinted the king to com up. They sneaked into the house. Quan gio led them to a room which placed a coffer. Quan gio unlocked the coffer took out silver bars and gave the king.
“This is silver he just has stolen today and not yet uses. You take the silver to come home and have a great Tet holiday. Hurry up, now, before they find out. I have to stay here to clean all marks.”
The king saw silver bars and realized the symbor which was notched on each of bars indicated that silver bars belonged to him, the king. Now the king belived that what Quan gio had said was true he went out traight to castle and hid the silver. The next morning that was the first day of Te holiday all mandarins had to come and participated in party which was organized by the king. The king asked courtiers to call the storage keeper up and asked:
“A thief came to your house last night, didn’t he?”
The storage keeper didn’t answer so the king asked courtiers to bring the silver he had taken to him. He threw them down. The storage keeper couldn’t say any thing one more time. He kept his face opposite the ground and amitted his crime.
Quan gio now was invited in the castle. The king gave him a compliment and called him honorable thief.
THE END     
"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Book Introductions

1. Complete Collection of Vietnamese Fairy Tales - A Treasury of Legends and Folklore

Discover over 240 enchanting Vietnamese fairy tales, translated into English and beautifully illustrated. This collection is a treasure trove of legends and folklore that reflect Vietnam's rich cultural heritage. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

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:
-----

Comments

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!

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

Truyện 166. Vợ chàng Trương

Ngày xưa, ở làng Nam-xương có cô gái tên là Vũ Thị Thiết, người đã xinh đẹp lại thùy mị nết na. Nàng lấy chồng là Trương sinh vốn là người cùng làng. Trương sinh có tính cả ghen, hay để tâm xét nét vợ, nhưng vợ chàng thường giữ gìn khuôn phép nên không có chuyện gì xảy ra. Vợ chồng hương đượm lửa nồng chưa được bao lâu thì bỗng nghe tin chốn biên thùy có giặc, chồng vâng lệnh quan phải từ giã mẹ và vợ đi lính thú. Bấy giờ vợ đang có thai. Buổi chia tay thật là bịn rịn, mẹ chúc cho con chân cứng đá mềm, chồng khuyên vợ gắng phụng dưỡng mẹ già và nuôi con khôn lớn. Sau khi chồng trẩy được mươi ngày thì Vũ Thị Thiết sinh được một đứa con trai, đặt tên là thằng Đản. Thằng bé sởn sơ mạnh khỏe, còn bà nội của nó vì nhớ con sinh ra đau ốm. Vợ chàng Trương hết lòng mời thầy chạy thuốc, nhưng bệnh của mẹ chồng mỗi ngày một nặng, chẳng bao lâu thì mất. Nhờ có bà con xóm giềng, mọi việc tống táng đều lo liệu chu toàn. Đã mấy thu qua không thấy chồng...

GIỠ HAO JRANG chapter 4

Their fighting was very noisy. When their knives hit against the others or hit again shields it rumbled as thunders. The place between sky and ground where they fought was covered by dusts. They wrestled, punched and kicked other by their feet. They burked others by their huge hands. Daytime as like nighttime they fought without resting. Sometime, GiỡTuKrong and his fellows got advantage but sometime, they lost. Long time had passed but they still didn’t find out the winner. BokKiekLaDiaKlaKong clawed on GiỡTuKrong’s face by his pointed hard fingernails but all his fingernails were broken while GiỡTuKrong’s face had no scratch. GiỡTuKrong raised his hexagonal rod which was made of brass and lashed on BokKiekLaDiaKlaKong’s face. BokKiekLaDiaKlaKong dizzied and fell on ground he fainted.

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

Golden hole or silver hole

Their  parent died, left them valuable assets. They were two boys. They still lived together in their parent’s house till the old brother got married. After the old brother married, he wanted to divide their parent’s assets. Therefore, he wrote an agreement paper. “This is the time we need to divide our parent’s assets.” He said, “We both need private lives”.  “How will we divide?” said the young brother. “All things our parent left were in three types:  male, female and neutral. Because you are younger then me, I will give you all things which were male I will get things which were female and neutral. If you agreed, sign you name on this paper”, said the old brother. The young innocently thought that his brother was very kind, giving him good things so he signed his name on the paper. They started separating. “This house is mine. This female buffalo is mine. This plow is mine, This jar is mine….” said the old brother. From morning to afternoon, almo...

Truyện 172. Thịt gà thuốc chồng

Xưa, có hai vợ chồng nhà nọ lấy nhau lâu ngày. Người vợ bỗng sinh trắc nết gian díu với một chàng trai. Hai bên say mê nhau và điều ước muốn của người đàn bà là làm sao cho chồng sớm chết để mình được tự do đi lại với tình nhân. Hàng ngày người đàn bà sửa lễ ra đền khẩn vái cầu thần hóa phép cho chồng chết đi, sẽ xin hậu tạ. Việc ngoại tình của người vợ cuối cùng cũng đến tai người chồng. Hắn đã rình rập đôi ba phen nhưng chưa kết quả. Thấy vợ lui tới đền thờ thần luôn thì hắn sinh mối ngờ vực, bèn một hôm lẻn đến trước, nấp ở sau pho tượng. Khi nghe lọt những lời khấn khứa của vợ, hắn bỗng mỉm cười, rồi nhân thể đổi giọng giả làm lời thần nói vọng xuống, đủ lọt vào tai vợ: - Về mổ một con gà mái ghẹ, bỏ vào một nắm hoài sơn, nấu lên cho ăn thì nhất định nó phải chết. Vợ tưởng là lời thần phán thật, bèn trở về làm như là dặn. Buổi chiều hôm ấy sau khi một mình chén cả con gà, chồng giả cách lên giường nằm vật vã. Vợ chắc mẩm thuốc bắt đầu ngấm, mừng thầm tron...

Two storks and turtle.

A  woman was haughty and always gave others venomous words when they made her unhappy. She not only scolded the people but also she scolded their parent and their grandparents. When the woman died, the death god forced her to rebirth in a turtle. The turtle spent its life in a pond alone, having normal days with fish and shrimps, her food. One year, it didn’t rain. The pond turned dry until it was a pond of mud and still continued turning dry. One day, two storks flew to and landed on the pond. They waded in mud to find something to eat. And just caught some shrimps when they met the turtle. “Who are you? Get away, now or I will tear you in pieces”, shouted the turtle. The storks felt unhappy as they were scolded but they kept their calm and conversed to make her calm. “Ohh, you are also here, sister. We don’t come here to rob your food but to want to help you. Help you have food in this difficult time”, said the storks in happy voice. “Sister! Who is your sister?...

226. Tình bạn tri âm của Bá Nha vàTử Kỳ

Cách đây đến mấy ngàn năm, vào thời Xuân thu Chiến quốc, đất nước Trung Hoa bị chia năm xẻ bảy, Tề, Ngụy, Sở,... Trong thời buổi loạn ly ấy, có những nhân tài muốn nhân cơ hội để phát huy khả năng của mình, nhưng cũng có người vì chán cảnh thế nhân đau khổ nên tìm nơi xa lánh, ẩn cư. Lúc đó, ở nước Tề, có một vị tướng quốc tên là Du Bá Nha. Ông là một người có tài tế thế ấn bang, một tay giúp Tề Vương củng cố và xây dựng đất nước Trung Hoa trở thành nước lớn lúc bấy giờ. Và ít ai biết rằng Du Bá Nha còn là một trong những kỳ nhân về đàn. Cây đàn của ông là một trong những báu vật đương thời. Điều đặc biệt ở chỗ, cây đàn của ông được làm bằng cây ngô đồng. Từ loại gỗ đặc biệt được dùng để làm nhạc cụ ấy, người ta đã công phu chọn một cây ưng ý nhất trong cả ngàn cây. Phần ngọn được bỏ đi, vì gỗ non sẽ làm tiếng đàn quá trong trẻo và non nớt. Phần gốc cũng không dùng, vì gỗ quá già, tiếng đàn sẽ bị đục, không hay. Họ chỉ giữ lại phần giữa để làm đàn cho Bá Nha. Trong những năm thán...