A long time ago, an aspiring young scholar from a village went to Seoul to take the state civil service examination. One day, while shopping, a small reflective object caught his eyes. When he looked closely into it, he was amazed to see the image of his own very face clearly on its surface. He remembered that he had often seen the image of his face, usually distorted, reflected in the washbowl, but he had never seen such an object which could reflect his own image so clearly. He was so fascinated by the small pocket-size looking glass that he bought it.

Back home, he did not show the mirror to anyone; instead, he hid it in a drawer, looking into it secretly every morning. One day, his wife noticed that he took something out of the drawer, stared, smiled at it and then put it away. Naturally, her curiousity was aroused.

While her husband was out, she looked inside the drawer and found a small shiny object. As she examined the object, she stepped back, startled by the sudden appearance of a very attractive but puzzled young woman. She shook her head disbelievingly and peeked into it again. And she found the same attractive woman, looking a bit annoyed. Filled with jealousy, she ran to her mother-in-law with the looking glass in her hand. "See, my husband has brought a young mistress with him from Seoul!" she said, bursting into tears.

The mother-in-law could not believe that her son would do such a thing, and asked "Where is she now?" The daughter-in-law handed over the looking glass to her. As the older woman brought the object close to her face, she found a wrinkled old woman staring at her! "Dear, where is that young woman you were talking about? I see, instead, a granny visiting us from a neighbouring village!"

Hearing the commotion from the women's quarters, the father-in-law came to enquire about it. He took the looking glass and looked into it for a while. What he saw was an old man with gray hair. He kneeled down and said respectfully to the looking glass, "Dear late father, what unhappiness has brought you back as a spirit? Have I done anything to make you restless?"

The daughter-in-law was dumbfounded by all this. She decided to look into the object again. There was no doubt about it - the young mistress appeared, again! The enraged young wife raved and ranted at the mistress for her clever disguises. And the mistress mimicked her with a contorted face and twisted lips! The young woman grew more and more angry, and finally threw the looking glass down hard onto the floor and broke it into pieces.