Tara

1 Honesty

1	An Axe man was felling wood by the side of a deep river,
2	When his axe slipped from his hands and flew into the waters.
3	Deprived of his means of livelihood,
4	The man sat down by the river bank and lamented his ill fortune.
5	Luki then appeared and demanded to know the cause of his lament.
6	Upon which the man repeated the tale of his misfortune.
7	At that moment Luki plunged into the river,
8	Then returned holding a golden axe.
9	He asked the man if this is the source of his ill fortune?
10	The man replied, that although a thing of beauty and value,
11	It is not rightfully mine to keep.
12	Luki then plunged again into the river and then produced as Silver Axe.
13	Again the man replied it was not his to use.
14	Finally, Luki plunged and returned from the river with an iron axe.
15	The man then exclaimed to Luki that this was indeed his to use,
16	And that his fortune be restored.
17	To which Luki replied:
18	Good and honest sir, though your body shall weaken and decay,
19	And that you shall have days of grief and woe,
20	Your life shall be all the richer,
21	For you value that to which you have been entrusted,
22	And do not covet that which does not belong to you.