Online Moral Story - The honest wood-cutter

                There was a poor wood–cutter. One day, he was cutting a tree on the bank  of a river. His axe fell into  the river. The river was deep. He began to weep. Hearing his cries, the god mercury appeared there. He asked the wood-cutter, why he was weeping. The wood – cutter told him his sad story.

                God mercury dived into the river. He came out with a gold axe. The wood-cutter said, ‘’it is not my axe.’’ Again god mercury dived into the river. This time he came out with a silver axe. The wood-cutter said, “it is also not mine.’’ Then the god mercury dived again and brought an iron axe. 

                The wood-cutter felt happy to see his own axe. He said, “This is really mine.” The god mercury was pleased at his honesty. He gave him all the three axes as a reward.

                The poor wood – cutter became very rich. After some days he told all the incident to his neighbour.  But his neighbour Shankar was a greedy man. One day Shankar also went to that bank of the river with the iron axe and started cutting tree. After some time he knowingly threw away his axe into the river and started weeping like the poor wood-cutter. Hearing his cry the god mercury appeared there. He asked Shankar why he was weeping.  Shankar told him his sad story like the poor wood-cutter.

                The god mercury dived into the river. He came out with the golden axe. Seeing  the golden axe in front of him Shankar could not keep control over his greed. He at once told “Yes, that is my axe.” The god mercury understood that he is a greedy man a telling a lie. The god mercury vanished. Shankar became sad, because he could get nothing,  and had lost his only iron axe.

Moral – Honesty never goes unrewarded and greedy are needy.  

also see this