The Rolling Rice Cake A Story From Japan

An old man was going to cut wood in the forest. His wife made lovely rice cakes for him. “Thank you,” the old man said. “You make the best rice cakes ever!”

After the old man had cut a lot of wood, he felt a little hungry. He took a rice cake out of his bag, but it fell out of his hand and rolled down a hole in the ground. He looked down the hole to see if he could see his rice cake.

He was surprised to hear a pretty song coming from the hole. “Rolling rice cake is so nice, roll a cake to your friends the mice!” It was a family of mice! “Sing again!” the old man said.

He rolled another one of his rice cakes down the hole and listened. He could hear the mice nibbling on his rice cakes. The old man moved closer to the hole because he wanted to hear the singing better.

He fell into the hole and rolled all the way to the bottom! At the bottom of the hole, he saw a whole family of mice looking at him while nibbling on his rice cakes. “Rolling old man is so nice, he shared rice cakes with the mice!”

“Since you were so nice to us and shared your rice cakes, we have a special gift for you!” It was a little bag of rice. “Thank you!” the old man said. “Now, I must get back to my wife. Good-bye!”

The old man tried to climb out of the hole, but it was too steep. He turned back to the mice and asked, “Can you help me out of this hole?” The mice sang this song:

“Rolling old man is so nice, we can help you get back home.” Then, hundreds of mice came to help roll the old man up, and out of the hole! The old man took the rice bag home and gave the rice bag to his wife,

His wife used all the rice in the bag to make some more rice cakes. When she looked into the bag again, she saw that it was still full of rice! No matter how many rice cakes she made, there was always more rice in the bag!

The old man said, “That must have been a magic bag of rice that the mice gave me! So every day, the wife made the best rice cakes and gave them to her husband.

And every day, the old man took rice cakes to the mice and rolled them down the hole, just so he could hear his friends sing their song every day!