Situ Bagendit is based on a folklore of the same title, originating from Indonesia. This is a legend about a real lake in Garut, West Java ("Situ" means lake in Sundanese). Although there are a few different versions of the story, all their message still remains the same.

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Story tells of a rich, stingy widow named Nyi Bagendit. She was very fond of her wealth and wouldn't share a single bit of it with anyone else. As a loan shark, she lends money to poor villagers with steep interest rates and ended up taking their rice fields or other possessions when they couldn’t pay her back. Nobody dared to go against her as she has underlings by her side, ready to beat up anyone threatening her. 

One day, an old beggar came to her, asking to be spared some food. Bagendit refused, angrily told him to get lost. The more he pleaded, the angrier she got and she beat him up. But the beggar stood back up, then stabbed a stick into the ground. As soon as the stick was lifted, water spouted from the hole it made. It kept going and the village had started drowning. While everyone else fled, Bagendit tried to save her precious belongings. In the end, she drowned with them. 

The water drowned the whole village and turned it into a lake people now call Situ Bagendit. Rumors has it that to this day, Bagendit still lurks beneath the lake as a giant leech, protecting her drowned possesions.

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Fantastic Fables project gathers creators to retell classic folklores from all around Asia, adapted in a fresh new setting.