Dokkaebi

The scholar's wife stayed at home while her husband walked through southern Seoul. An old woman came to beg. Although her face was not wrinkled, she looked very old and resembled a Buddhist priestess. The wife asked if she could sew, then offered her breakfast and supper in exchange for staying and working. The woman gladly accepted. Her tasks began with picking cotton and continued with making and spinning thread. She worked at a pace that astonished her employer: in a single day she did more than eight ordinary women, yet seemed to have time left over. Pleased with the bargain, the wife gave her a great feast. The tale's English heading calls it the story of an old woman who became a goblin.

Two goblin creatures then took possession of a room in the house. They removed the things inside an ancient tablet-box on a wall shelf and vanished into it. Their bodies could no longer be seen, though their voices remained. They ordered food and other things as they pleased. When the scholar's wife failed to satisfy them in even a small matter, they sent plague and sickness against her. Her children became ill and died. Relatives came to visit, caught the same plague, and also died. As the danger spread, people gradually stopped coming near the house. Townspeople watched smoke rise from its chimney each day and understood it to mean the wife was still alive. Then, after five or six days, the smoke stopped. They believed the woman had died, but no one dared to go and find out.