By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Was it a case of the personification of karma or an act of Buddhist salvation for others' sins?

Perhaps the answer may now be irrelevant but the fact remains.

Cho Se-hyung was called many names ― the Korean Robin Hood and Hong Gil-dong, the main character of the first Korean novel, to name a couple ― for his high-profile burglaries and donation of some of his spoils to the underprivileged in the 1970s and 1980s.

After he served out his prison sentence, he tried to make a fresh start but apparently failed, going back to his old habit of thievery. That was a couple years ago but little has been heard of him ever since.

Now, some media outlets are talking about Cho again because of his former wife, Lee Kyung-eun, who has given up her mundane life to become a Buddhist nun.

On Dec. 1, 55-year-old Lee shaved her head. She was given the name "Cheongah" at Guryong Temple in southern Seoul.

During the ceremony, Lee was in tears when a senior monk told her to leave everything from the mundane world behind. She was quoted as saying, "This is the only option I could take after splitting with Cho."

The couple got married in 2000, two years after Cho was released from prison. Cho was one of the most talked-about thieves and Lee was a successful business woman, 16 years his junior.

Pessimism prevailed about the future of their marriage, but they stayed together for more than eight years.

Cho became a devout Christian and ran Lee's company with her for a while. But Lee said Cho was never released from his karma.

"When he had to make business deals, his former fellow criminals came around him and told him what to do. He just followed. Our business failed. He was a nice person but wasn't capable of making a living," she said.

The cracks got deeper when he was nabbed once again in 2001 for having broken into a house to steal. People said love might free him from his karma, but obviously it didn't.

She stood by him until he was released in 2008, but she said the couple lost respect and trust toward each other.

The couple drifted apart. They decided to split in September last year and the divorce was finalized in February.

Lee said Cho's friends threatened her and the children. "Buddhism was the last resort for solace," she said. "I still miss him in a way, but hope he lives his life on his own now."

Cho was called "The Big Thief" in the 1970s and 1980s when Korea was under one dictator after another, with crony capitalism reaching its peak.

He was caught in 1982.

In 1998, he said he would live a religious life, saying, "Thousands in gold bullion will not lure me anymore." He obviously didn't live up to his word or perhaps the world didn't let him.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr