The book is about a good and honest man named Shin who buys his friend's dream of buried treasure. He takes off on a journey to find the treasure. When he gets to his destination, he tells a rich man about his purpose. The rich man gets to the treasure first but when he opens the pot a swarm of bees fly out and disappear. He then replaces the pot and lets Shin find it, empty. Shin returns home disappointed and ashamed. His wife excitedly runs to meet him and tells him about a giant swarm of bees that overtook their house days earlier and left something. When she leads him inside he finds piles of gold coins, silks, stones, gems, and other treasures. Moral: "If good fortune is meant for you, no matter what happens, it will be yours."
I really enjoyed this book. I have always enjoyed folktales because they usually teach a lesson of some sort. The fact that this was one I hadn't heard before only enhanced it for me. I read it to my 5 year old twins, and although it was aimed at an older audience they still enjoyed it.
This could be used in a classroom to introduce the concept of symbolism. The bees symbolize good fortune in the story. An extension of that would be going through different cultures, religions, ethnic groups and so forth finding different symbols and their meanings. ( )