The poor and filial boy who would go to the mountains every day to cut firewood had come into possession of the legendary “Mallet of Wealth” by scaring off its owners, a group of goblins, in a wayside shrine. So in the morning he hurried home with the magical tool that could conjure up anything its holder wished.

His parents and neighbors had worried greatly over his failure to return home the previous night, and now, with great relief, they listened to his story. His parents were delighted to possess the mallet. With it, they became quite rich.

Now there was in their village a greedy and selfish boy. When he heard that his friend had suddenly become rich, he came to him and asked him the secret of his good fortune. The honest boy told him all about his experiences.

So the selfish boy, who was really quite well-off and had never in his life gone out into the mountains to cut wood, went out to look for the walnut tree. After a long, weary search, he found it, and being by now very hungry, he picked a nut and ate it. Then he picked some nuts for his family members just as the poor boy had, but then the selfish boy rushed off to the wayside shrine while it was still light, so impatient was he. He waited there until it got dark and then he climbed up and hid among the rafters.

In the middle of the night, the goblins came in and, striking the floor with another mallet, began their feast. The selfish boy was too impatient to wait until the wine had befuddled their wits and cracked a walnut in his mouth. This time the goblins were not at all alarmed by the sound, but merely looked up and said, ‘There he is up there. We are not going to be tricked a second time. Pull him down before he spoils our entertainment.’

So the selfish boy was dragged down from the rafters. The goblins sat around him on the floor and put him on trial.

‘What shall we do with this idle, greedy fellow?’ asked the leader of the goblins.

‘Hang him! Hang him!’ shouted the others.

‘That would be too severe. After all, he is only a boy. I suggest that we stretch his tongue.’

The assembly agreed, and so one of the goblins tapped the boy’s tongue with a mallet and intoned, ‘Tudurag-tag-tag, come out this tongue, 100 feet long.’ Immediately his tongue began to grow, until it was 100 feet long. Then the goblins kicked him out of the hall.

In his pain and weariness, the selfish boy could hardly stagger along carrying his 100-foot tongue on his back. He came to a river and saw that there was no bridge. So he stretched out his tongue across the river, forming a bridge that people could walk on. He had repented of his selfishness and had made up his mind to serve others. Travelers walked gratefully across the bridge he had formed. One man, however, let some burning tobacco fall on the tongue. The boy jumped with pain and fell into the river.