Once upon a time, there lived a young woodcutter. He was poor but he was a diligent and good-natured man. He worked all day long in the forests, cutting down trees and gathering firewood to support himself and his old parents. Although he worked very hard every day, things did not get any better and his family was as poor as ever. The young man felt down from time to time, but he never complained. He kept working silently and tried hard to support his parents.

One day, as always, he went to the forest to cut trees. A tree standing by a large pond caught his eye. He started to chop the tree with his old iron ax. Unfortunately, the ax slipped from his hands and fell into the pond. The woodcutter didn’t realize what had happened at first because everything happened in the blink of an eye. Soon he noticed that he had just lost his ax. The poor man had little money to buy food and other necessities, much less a new ax. His whole world suddenly turned black as he realized he lost not only his ax but his livelihood as well. Thinking of the old parents he had to take care of, he felt even more discouraged and hopeless. He started crying in despair.

Just then, the god of the mountains with a long white beard suddenly appeared from the pond. He looked at the crying young man and asked what made him so sad. Fighting back his tears, the young man explained what had happened to him. He continued to say, sobbing, “If I live alone, I don’t care. I can wander here and there to beg for food. But what about my parents? Without my ax, how can I support them now?”

After hearing this, the mountain god nodded his head. He promised the young man that he would bring him his ax and disappeared. A moment later, the god came back. He was holding a gold ax in his hand. He asked the woodcutter if the gold ax was his. The honest woodcutter said no. The god then disappeared again. Before long, he reappeared with a silver ax this time around. Again, he asked if the silver ax belonged to the woodcutter. The young man again answered no. The mountain god vanished and reemerged from the pond. Holding an old, iron ax, he asked the woodcutter, “Then is this old ax yours?” The woodcutter shouted with joy, “Yes, that’s mine. Oh, thank you, Mountain God.” With a smile, the god said, “Son, you are an honest and good man. Take these three axes. I’ll give them all to you as a reward.” Needless to say, the woodcutter was happy with these unexpected gifts. He returned home, bringing all three axes. His family became better-off, of course, and he lived a happy life.

Now, there lived a greedy man in the neighborhood. When he heard about the woodcutter’s story, he turned green with envy. The grabby man ran toward the pond in the forest. He dropped an iron ax on purpose and waited for the mountain god to appear, crying bitterly. As expected, the mountain god appeared and asked the man why he was crying. Of course, the greedy man replied he had lost his ax. Until this moment, the process was exactly the same as what the good-hearted woodcutter went through. But when the god appeared with a gold ax, the avaricious man hurriedly said that it was his ax. With a displeased look, the mountain god said, “You’re a bad, dishonest man. Just go away.” Then the god disappeared. The man waited for the mountain god all day long but the god never came back. After all his efforts, the greedy man didn’t get a gold or silver ax, and even worse, he lost his own ax as well.