A Retell Of “The Woodcutter And The Ax”
We have true freedom when we are true to ourselves.
This is a retelling of Aesop’s fable “The Woodcutter And The Ax”.
There are so many retellings of the story of the woodcutter and his ax.
Here is my own retelling of the story:
Once upon a time, a woodcutter went about his daily chores of cutting wood in the forest. As he was passing by a river on his way back home, he accidentally dropped his ax right into the depth of the river.
Feeling helpless, he cried out loudly:
“Can someone please help me to retrieve my ax from the river!”
All of a sudden, an angel appeared in front of him. The angel said:
“Of course I can help you.”
And without any hesitation the angel extended his hand into the depth of the river and retrieved a gold ax. The angel then asked:
“Is this ax yours?”
The woodcutter, seeing that the gold ax is not his ax, then said:
“No, this is not my ax.”
The angel then extended his hand into the river and this time he retrieved a silver ax and he asked again:
“Is this ax yours then?”
The woodcutter, seeing that the silver ax is not his ax, replied:
“No, this is not my ax.”
The angel extended his hand into the river a third time and he retrieved an iron ax and he asked again:
“Is this ax your ax?”
The woodcutter’s ax is an iron ax and so he replied that this is indeed his ax.
The angel turned to the woodcutter and handed him all three axes and said:
“Because of your honesty, I am rewarding you with the silver and gold axes as well.”
The moral of the story is that honesty always brings along with it wonderful gifts that we never would have ever imagined — if not today, someday it will.
The story has not ended yet.
Here is my own extended version:
It so happened that while this was going on, a second woodcutter was hiding himself behind a tree and watching all that had happened.
The second woodcutter then thought to himself:
“I can do the same. I will drop my ax into the river and pretend to be honest and in the end I will also be rewarded with the silver and gold axes.”
And he did just that by intentionally dropping his iron ax into the river.
He then cried out for help to retrieve the ax.
The angel heard his cries and appeared. The angel said:
“Let me help you retrieve your ax.”
This time round instead of putting his hand into the river to retrieve an ax, the angel commanded the iron ax to surface itself from the bottom of the river.
And an iron ax suddenly appeared out of the river.
And the angel asked the second woodcutter:
“Is this your ax?”
The second woodcutter saw his iron ax and had no choice but to admit that this is indeed his ax.
And the story ended.
The moral of the story is that many things in life are not the consequence of what we do but how we do it. While both woodcutters dropped their ax into the river, one dropped it accidentally but the other dropped it on purpose.
The angel knew the second woodcutter intentionally dropped the ax and so there wasn’t even a need for the angel to test his honesty using the gold and silver axes.
Life lessons:
If we try to act honest, we are already being dishonest.
If our heart is dishonest, no matter what honest act we do, deep down it is still a dishonest act.
Even if we have been honest, we must always be reminded that every of our acts is a scene in our life that has its own characteristic ending. So imitating others does not always yield the same result!
Last but not least …. The most freedom we can accord to ourselves is to have no truth to hide — not even to pretend to be honest.
Cheers everyone!
