In a village, there once lived a poor but hardworking woodcutter. He made his livelihood cutting wood from a forest near his village and selling them. One day, he had climbed a tree on the bank of a river to chop wood. While chopping the wood, his axe fell into the river.

“Oh, no!” cried the woodcutter. “What will I do now? I no longer have an axe to chop the wood, and without wood, I cannot earn any money.” He wept out loud, lamenting his luck.

On hearing the woodcutter’s wails, the water fairy took pity on the woodcutter and appeared before him.

“Why are you crying?” she asked.

“My axe fell into the river. Without the axe, I cannot earn my livelihood,” replied the woodcutter.

The next instant, the fairy extended her hand, and to the woodcutter’s amazement, there was a golden axe in her hand.

“Here you go,” the fairy said.

“But this is not my axe,” the woodcutter responded.

“Oh? Then maybe this is your axe,” she replied, replacing the golden axe with a silver one.

“This is not mine either. My axe was made of wood,” the woodcutter answered sincerely.

Pleased with the woodcutter’s honesty, the water fairy returned the wooden axe. Also, as a reward, she gifted him the gold and the silver axes as well.

“Thank you, thank you,” said the woodcutter gratefully taking his precious gifts.

Ecstatic, the woodcutter returned home and shared the story of his good luck with his friend. This friend was a greedy man and wanting the same fortune, proceeded to the river the next day.

While chopping the wood, the man deliberately dropped his axe into the river.

“Oh, no,” he screamed in fake despair. “What will I do now?”

On hearing his screams, the water fairy appeared in front of him.

“What do you want? Why are you upset?” she asked.

“I had dropped my axe by mistake. I do not know what to do,” replied the man.

Just as before, the fairy gave a golden axe to the woodcutter. “Is this the one you had lost?” she asked.

Eyeing the golden axe greedily, the man answered, “Yes. This axe is mine.”

But just as he reached out to grab the axe, the axe vanished.

“You lie,” responded the fairy angrily and disappeared.

Having lost his wooden axe as well, the man returned home sadly regretting his greed.

Author’s Note:

All Aesop’s Fables have a moral attached to it.

In this story, there are multiple morals – “Honesty is the best policy. Honesty is always rewarded“. Another moral is “Greed gets you nothing“. Similar to the dog in the The Greedy Dog story, the friend in this story wanted more. In his greed he lost what he had.