困りました or 困っています


I'm reading a graded reader about the 地蔵（じぞう）folktale. The おじいさん gets to the
statues and finds them with snow on their heads and bodies. He removes the
snow from them and places hats on five out of six of them. Then he says:
あれ、困りましたねえ. After that, he realizes there's one left without a hat, he takes
his off and places it on it's head. My question is, when he says 困りました, does
he mean he was troubled before he put the hats on the five statues, and after
that he wasn't? Or that he's troubled because there's one without a hat left?
I think it's the former, and if it were the latter, it would be 困っています. Is
that assumption correct?




It sounds like he said it after he realized there's one without a hat. In
daily speech people say 困った to themselves or about someone else at the moment
they realize something's wrong. Saying 困っています sounds like you're asking for
some kind of long term help.




It sounds like he said it after he realized there's one without a hat. In
daily speech people say 困った to themselves or about someone else at the moment
they realize something's wrong. Saying 困っています sounds like you're asking for
some kind of long term help.

