Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who went every day in the woods to cut wood in order to earn enough money to give food to his large family.
One day he was cutting wood near a river and suddenly his axe slipped out of his hands and fell into the river. He was very sad and prayed to God. Suddenly an angel appeared and asked why he was so sad. He explained what happened and that without his axe he could not earn enough money to buy food for his family and he had not enough money to buy a new axe.
the angel jumped in the water and dived. One minute later he came up and showed a golden axe. He asked:' Is this your axe' The woodcutter said 'no'. the angel went down again and found a silver axe. Again teh woodcutter said it was not his. finally the angel found the right axe. He gave it to the wood cutter and as a reward for his honesty he gave the golden and silver axe to the woodcutter as well.
The woodcutter and his family were very happy and when his neighbour heard about this, he was very jealous. He went to the same river and dropped his axe into the river after which he pretended to be sad. The angel came and dove in the river. He came up with a golden axe and asked: 'Is this yours'. The neighbour was very excited and shouted "Yes, Yes'. the angel became angry and said that he should never be dishonest again. the angel took away the golden axe and took with him also the axe owned by the neighbour, who was left without any reward and who had lost his own axe.
