The Axe
Once upon a time, a young man set out for distant lands in search of work. His journey led him to a village where he witnessed a remarkable sight: people were felling trees with their bare hands."Brothers," he said, "why are you cutting down trees with your hands? Don't you have an axe?"
"An axe? What's that—'an axe'?" the villagers asked.
The young man pulled his axe from his belt and quickly chopped a large pile of firewood, which he then neatly stacked.
Seeing this, the villagers rushed to their homes, shouting, "Hey, everyone, come here! Come and see what Axe-jan has done!"
The villagers surrounded the young man, the owner of the axe. They begged him, threatened him, and promised him all sorts of rewards in exchange for the axe. Finally, they took the axe from the young man, deciding to handle it themselves.
The village elder was the first to take the axe. He swung it once and chopped off his own toes. He ran through the village, screaming in pain, "People, everyone, come here! Axe-jan has gone mad! He's chopped off half my foot!"
The villagers gathered and began beating the axe with their sticks. They hit it and hit it, but what could the axe do? It just lay on the ground as it was. Seeing this, they decided to burn the axe. They piled a heap of firewood on top and set it ablaze. When the fire died down, they rushed to see what had become of the axe: sifting through the ashes, they found the axe, glowing red-hot.
"Aha!" they shouted. "You can't be poisoned, Axe-jan! Look how red you've turned! You must be ashamed! Serves you right! How much misfortune you've brought us. And how much more could you bring? Here's what we'll do: let's throw you in prison!"
They decided and acted. They threw the red-hot axe into the elder's barn. The barn was full of hay. The axe fell onto the hay, and it burst into flames! Huge tongues of fire shot up to the sky. The villagers, terrified, rushed to catch up with the young man. They caught him and pleaded, "Young man, save us! We can't handle it ourselves. Please, for God's sake, reason with your Axe-jan."
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