Once upon a time, in a little village, there lived a kind and hardworking young man named Khoai. Khoai worked for a rich old farmer. He ploughed the fields, he fed the buffalo, he carried the rice home. From sunrise to sunset he worked, and he never once complained.
The rich farmer had a daughter who liked Khoai very much. She liked how he whistled while he worked and how gently he patted the buffalo. The farmer noticed, and he said, "Khoai, work hard for me for three years. If you two still like each other then, you may marry my daughter."
Khoai was so happy that he worked even harder. Three years went by. But the rich farmer was a little bit greedy. He did not want to spend money on a wedding, and he wanted Khoai to keep working for free. So he thought up a very tricky task.
"Khoai," he said, "before the wedding, go to the forest and bring me a bamboo tree with one hundred knots. Not ninety-nine. One hundred!"
Khoai went into the forest. He counted the knots on one bamboo: one, two, three... only forty. He counted another: only fifty. He searched and searched all day, but no bamboo had one hundred knots. Khoai sat down on a rock and sighed. "Oh dear, what shall I do?"
Suddenly, a kind old man with a long white beard appeared. It was Bụt, the gentle helper of good people. "Why are you sighing, my boy?" Khoai told him the whole story.
Bụt smiled. "Cut one hundred pieces of bamboo, each with one knot, and lay them in a line. Then say the magic words: Khắc nhập, khắc nhập! That means join together, join together!"
Khoai did just that. He lined up the pieces, one, two, three, all the way to one hundred. Then he said, "Khắc nhập, khắc nhập!" Pop, pop, pop! The pieces jumped up and joined, click, click, click, into one long, long bamboo with exactly one hundred knots! It was so long it could not fit between the trees. Bụt chuckled. "Now say: Khắc xuất, khắc xuất! That means come apart, come apart!" Khoai said it, and pop, pop, pop, the bamboo came apart into a neat bundle he could carry on his back.
When Khoai got home, the rich farmer's eyebrows shot up. "Back already? A hundred knots? Impossible!"
Khoai laid the pieces in a line across the yard and said, "Khắc nhập, khắc nhập!" Pop, pop, pop! Click, click, click! There stood the hundred-knot bamboo, tall and shining green.
"That can't be real," said the farmer, and he reached out to touch it. "Wait!" Khoai began, but the magic words were still working. Boing! The farmer's hand stuck to the bamboo, gently, like a leaf stuck on honey. It didn't hurt one bit. He wiggled his hand, and the bamboo wiggled too. Wiggle, wiggle, wobble.
The yard went quiet. Nobody laughed. The farmer stood still, holding the bamboo, and he began to think. "Khoai worked hard for three whole years," he thought. "I made a promise, and then I tried to wriggle out of it. That was not fair at all."
He looked at Khoai and said softly, "Khoai, I'm sorry. I was greedy, and I did not keep my promise. You are an honest, hardworking young man. Will you forgive me?"
Khoai smiled. "Of course I forgive you." Then he said, "Khắc xuất, khắc xuất!" Pop! The farmer's hand came free, and the bamboo came apart into a tidy bundle again.
The farmer laughed a big, warm laugh. That very week, he held a happy wedding for Khoai and his daughter and invited the whole village. There was sticky rice, sweet soup and music. And the hundred pieces of bamboo? Khoai used them to build a lovely fence around their new garden: one hundred pieces, standing all in a row.
Parent tip: Let your child shout "Khắc nhập, khắc nhập!" and "Khắc xuất, khắc xuất!" with you, clapping hands together and pulling them apart for each spell.
Ask your child: After the story, you can ask: “Who was kind in this story, and what did they do?”
This is a gentle retelling where the farmer's hand sticks only lightly, nobody laughs at him, and the story ends with an apology and forgiveness.