Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Foreign language (English) > Aesop’s Fables

A Bad Doctor

(Aesop’s Fables)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese ・ English ・Japanese & English

　A bad doctor examined a sick person.

　Other doctors would say,

“This sick person is not in a serious condition, but it’ll take a while for a full recovery.”

　This bad doctor, however, said,

“I’m sorry to tell you that this sick person won’t survive until tomorrow.

　You should prepare for the worst.”

　And then he left.



　A little while later, the sick person came to be able to get up

　and go out even though he was still pale and shaky on his feet.

　As he was tottering along, he saw the bad doctor coming from the opposite side.

“Hello there.

　How are people doing in the hell?”

　the bad doctor greeted him.

　The sick person, then, calmly responded,

“Everyone there has been taking it easy.

　As you know,

　you can forget about everything if you drink water from the river on the border of this world and the hell.

　But recently, Death and the king of the hell got furious at doctors.

　‘The hell has had less people because a lot more sick people tend to survive thanks to doctors, ’

　they say.

　Then, they were intending to get rid of all doctors

　and writing down every single name of them on their list.

　I noticed they were also trying to put down your name so I lied on the ground.

　‘Please help him because he is not a real doctor.’

　I begged.”



　This story has ironic overtone of doctors who don’t really mean to cure sick people.

The end

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