# 박씨 물고 날아와 은혜 갚은...



## 82riceballs

Dear all,

I would like to know what the following sentence means:
그 당시 해외 유학을 가있던 또래들에 비해서는 돈을 덜 들인 셍이니, 
결과적으로는 박씨 물고 날아와 은혜 갚은 전화비랄까.

It's from a chapter of this book [p.20] I'm reading that talks about how the author learned a lot of English online, which cost a lot of money, but was still significantly cheaper than studying abroad. 

I know the first half of the sentence means, "Since it cost less than studying abroad (which my kids my age were doing), ..." but I don't get the second half... is it an idiom?

Thanks in advance!


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## Rance

It's from an old story called 흥부와 놀부, or 흥부전.
A baby swallow fell off its nest and broke its leg.
흥부 helped to heal it and in next spring the swallow,which is a migratory bird, brought him 박씨 , a gourd seed, as repayment.
When 흥부 harvested later, he found lots of treasures inside of gourds and became rich.
Hence the phrase is comparable to English old saying, "what goes around comes around".


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## vientito

I suppose the use of 날아오다 (an image of fluttering) is a sort of simile to emphasize rapidness and suddenness?


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## Rance

No, it's safe to interpret literally.
A swallow, or 제비, is known to migrate from 강남(Jiangnam from China) to Korea in late spring.
According to the story, it brought 흥부 a seed(박씨) in its mouth (물고) flying(날라와) from 강남.


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## 82riceballs

Thank you makes perfect sense now!!!


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