Saturday, July 4, 2009

The honest (and wise) Woodcutter


Long, long ago, there lived a woodcutter in a small village. He is sincere in his work and very honest. Everyday, he will set out into the nearby forest to cut trees. He’ll bring the cut trees in the evening to the village, sell them out to a merchant and earn his money.

One day, while cutting a tree near a river, his axe slipped out of his hand fell into the river. The river was so deep, he could not retrieve it. He only had one axe and since it is lost, he could not earn a living now. He was very sad and prayed to the river God. Since his prayer was so intense, the God appeared in front of him and asked “what is the problem, my son?” The woodcutter explained the problem and requested him earnestly to get his axe back. The God put his hand deep into the river and took a Golden axe and asked “Is this your axe?” The Woodcutter looked at the axe and said “No”. God told him to look carefully, “This is an expensive golden axe. Look, this maybe yours” To this the woodcutter firmly said “No”.

The God put his hand deep into the water again and showed a silver axe and asked “Is this your axe?” The wood cutter looked at the axe and said “No”. The God finally put his hand into the water again and took his iron axe and asked “Is this your axe?” To this, the wood cutter said “Yes”. The God was very impressed with his honesty and gave the other two axes also to him, along with his iron axe, as the gift for his honesty. The wood cutter was very happy.

Moral of the story: If you are honest, the God will give you more.

Part II:

The story did not end here. The wood cutter took those two expensive axes and went to the merchant to sell. The merchant was very surprised to see such expensive axes with the poor woodcutter. The wood cutter explained about the Water God and His gifts. The merchant was very greedy and wanted to try that himself. He took his own expensive iron axe with him and went to the river. He intentionally dropped the axe into the river and prayed to the God. The God appeared before him and asked for the problem. The merchant requested the God to recover his axe which fell into the river. The God put his hand deep into the river and took a golden axe and asked “Is this your axe?” The greedy merchant immediately said “YES”. The God was very angry and pushed the merchant into the river and killed him. The merchant had lost his axe and his life.

Moral of the story: If you are dishonest, the God will punish you.

Part III:

There is a III part of this story too. After many months, the woodcutter went through the river with his wife. Now, his wife accidentally fell into the river. The river was so deep, she immediately drowned. The woodcutter prayed to the water God again. The God appeared in front of him and asked “son, what is the problem now? Have you dropped the axe again?” The woodcutter explained about his wife and requested Him to get her back from the river.

The God put his hand deep into the water and took Aishwarya Roy from the river and asked “Is this your wife?” The woodcutter looked at Aishwarya Roy and immediately said “YES”. The God was very angry. He shouted “Liar, how come you have become so dishonest and greedy? I know this is not your wife. What made you to lie to me?” To this the woodcutter very politely answered. ”My Lord, I know what will you do. If I did not lie now, you’ll show Sushmita Sen and would ask is her my wife? If I still say no, you would finally show my wife. And you would gift all the three ladies to me.” “It is very difficult to manage just one wife. Please imagine my fate if I have to manage three wifes?” “Instead, I would better get drowned into the river by You”

The God was very pleased with the wisdom of the woodcutter and took his wife back from the river and gave her to him. He got Aishwarya Roy married to Abhishek Bachchan and all of them were happy.

Moral of the story: It is important to be honest. It is more important to be wise. Otherwise, you’ll be in deep trouble!

4 comments:

  1. This is pretty kewl.
    Never heard of this story, but definitely very funny.

    Cheers,
    Mathi Ezhil Arasu

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  2. Very interesting and thought provoking morals from these stories will share with my daughters and son

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  3. I like the last part

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  4. This is useful for a story telling competition , good job.

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