The Korean tale of Heungbu and Nolbu says the elder brother took the whole inheritance and threw the younger out, and a swallow reversed their fortunes

Heungbu and Nolbu is a folk tale and a pansori song cycle, Heungbuga, written down in the late Joseon dynasty by an unknown author. The earliest known text is presumed to date from 1833. Two brothers are sons of a rich man. When the father dies, the elder brother, Nolbu, keeps the whole fortune and drives out the younger brother, Heungbu, with his family. Heungbu works odd jobs and goes hungry. He begs at Nolbu's house, and Nolbu's wife hits him in the face with a rice ladle; he picks the grains off his cheek and asks her to hit him again. Heungbu mends a swallow's broken leg. The swallow brings a seed, and the gourds that grow from it are full of treasure. Nolbu breaks a swallow's leg on purpose to copy him. His gourds release goblins, debt collectors and a flood, and he and his wife lose everything. In the end they apologise and the brothers reconcile. A 2017 column in the Jeonbuk Ilbo ties the tale to inheritance favouring the eldest son. Scholars read it as a story of a newly rich commoner class and a declining poor gentry. Two villages in Namwon claim to be Heungbu's birthplace and the place he settled after Nolbu threw him out. UNESCO lists pansori as intangible heritage.