File:The Headstone Goes to Court (망두석 재판).jpg

Background
The Headstone Goes to Court is one of the famous Korean folk tale tale that is recorded in 《ChungGuYaDam(청구야담)》(the ancient book that are written in the 19th century, titled as 《청주쉬인이권술포도(淸州倅人以權術捕盜)》. It is the oral story passed down from mouth to mouth from the past. Many fairy tale writers have modified this story little by little so that it can be passed on to recent days. In a similar way to the story of a Western Rabbi, these kind of oral story tells the children about the wisdom of their ancestors and helps them learn the lessons.

Mangduseok(望頭石/망두석) (also called as Mangjuseok) is a pair of stone pillars carved into eight pillars that are built in front of the tomb or on both sides. It is also referred to as a pillar of stone, or a Mangju-seok-pyo(망주석표). As for the Mangduseok, there are claims such as the cover theory that the Mangduseok helps the ghost to find their way to heaven by giving them the direction, also serves as a specific sign for the ghost. There are lots of other theories regarding to this headstone that it works as one of the system based on the theory of Yin and Yang and the theory of and the theory of harmony between yin and yang, and the divination based on topography. Originally, there were restrictions on the construction of the Mangduseok regarding to the status system, but after the Japanese colonial period, it loses its traditional meaning and became a simple decoration.

Summary
One day, a silk merchant took a nap next to Mangduseok(a headstone) while he was traveling a town. But when he woke up, all of the silk he planned to sell at the town were stolen by someone. So he visited a lord of the manor who is known for being wise. After hearing all the things that were happened to that merchant, the lord ordered his soldiers to catch the Mangduseok, telling them that the stone is the only witness. Soldiers thought it as ridiculous, but they followed his orders. They dragged heavy and hard rock and tied it with ropes to treat it as a suspect. The lord even sentenced it to get lashes on its bottocks, which seemed to be really weird as the headstone is just a stone not a person who can witness the incident. The villagers who came to see the trial laughed a lot by his absurd orders. However, the lord scolded their rudeness and then tried to put all of them them in the prison. People who just enjoyed the ridiculous trial were frustrated and pleaded for his mercy. Then, the lord said them that each villager should bring a silk if they wanted to be forgiven. The villagers rushed to get a silk. Next they, a lot of silks were stacked up in front of the lord. The lord let the merchant find his own silk among those silks and he finally found his silks that were stolen. By that evidence, the lord traced back the incident by investigating who sold the silk to the villagers and could catch the thief at last.