No. 16 — The drum that sounds without being struck
A priest who always gave his boy attendant difficult tasks ordered him, "Go buy something-or-other." The boy brought back horse intestines he had seen at a bridge, and the priest was astonished. Next the priest told him to buy "a drum that sounds without being struck, a sleeve that hides a coward." The boy got a hint from children poking at a bee's nest, obtained the nest, and brought it home. When the priest opened it himself, he was attacked by the bees and ran about covering himself with his sleeve. After that, the priest no longer gave the boy impossible tasks.
- Land
- Shiwa District
- Type
- Strange Fates
This is an English rendering of our short Japanese summary of the source tale — a summary translated from the Japanese, not a translation of the original text. The summary was drafted and translated with AI assistance, and names and numbers were checked against our records. Tale numbers for this book follow the order in which the tales appear; they are ours, not the book's.