Can’t Figure Out What’s Cooking

(I am working for a conversation school in Korea and living in apartments provided by my employers, a husband and wife couple. One day they come over for a visit. It goes pleasantly enough and they leave. Later, the guy who did a lot of the translating for us comes up to me.)

Coworker: “Hey, do you have a rice cooker?”

Me: *a little confused* “Why?”

Coworker: “[Bosses] saw your bucket of rice and couldn’t see one.”

Me: “I don’t have one.”

Coworker: “Then how do you cook rice?”

Me: “I have a stove and pots.”

Coworker: *looks confused for a moment and then realizes* “Oh! You actually COOK rice.”

Me: “Well, sometimes I burn it.”

(Apparently they had spent a lot of the visit trying to find my nonexistent rice cooker without rudely going through my things.)