Honesty is the best policy(moral story)

Honesty is the best policy

 Once a poor woodcutter was felling a tree on a river bank. His axe slipped from his hand and fell into the deep river. The poor man began to cry, for he used to earn his livelihood by cutting trees with his axe. Now that his axe was lost he did not know what to do. He had no money to buy a new one and this made him cry even more bitterly. By chance the god Mercury came there.

Honesty is the best policy

He asked the woodcutter why he was crying. The poor fellow looked up and told him about his misfortune. Mercury jumped into the river and came up with an axe in his hand. It was not the woodcutter’s axe but one made of gold. He gave it to the woodcutter who refused to take it and said, “This is not my axe.” Mercury, no doubt, knew it already. 
He once again plunged into the river and brought out a silver axe. The woodcutter again refused to take it. He said that his was an iron axe . He did not want to cheat and claim what was not his. The river god jumped into the river for the third time and came out with an iron axe. 
The woodcutter recognized it and gratefully took it. The god was greatly impressed by the honesty of that poor man who had rejected a fortune by refusing to claim what was not his own. So Mercury gave the two precious axes to the woodcutter as a reward for his honesty, and went away. 
Moral: 
Honesty is the best policy
Honesty Never goes unrewarded

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