Reprinted with permission from "How the Children Became Stars" by Aaron Zerah, published by Sorin Books.

One day, a woodcutter went out to chop a load of firewood to sell in the market, but his favorite ax was gone. He looked all through the woodpile, behind his house, and even in his house. He looked everywhere he thought he might have put the ax, but he did not find it. The more he looked, the more upset and frustrated he became. He exhausted himself looking for his precious ax.

Then he noticed a boy--his neighbor's son--standing near the woodshed. The woodcutter stared at the boy and thought to himself: "What's he doing hanging around the woodshed, just walking back and forth? He's got his hands behind his back and his face has a guilty look. Why that boy must have stolen my ax! I can't prove it, but I'll make that boy pay anyhow."

The next day the woodcutter walked over to a pile of firewood he had forgotten about and tripped on something. It was his ax! "Oh yes," he remembered, "that's where I left it when I was cutting wood the other day."

Then the woodcutter saw the neighbor's son again. He inspected the boy up and down from head to toe. He looked at him right in the eye. "How strange," the woodcutter thought, "today the boy looks completely innocent."

Bringing It Home

To Do This Week