Being honest means telling the truth. It also means not taking things that are not yours. It means not cheating. If you are honest, people trust you and like you. It is a story about what happened to a woodcutter who was honest.

A poor woodcutter was cutting wood by a river. His axe slipped out of his hands and fell into the river.

``Oh no! He cried. `How shall I cut wood tomorrow?

Just then a deva came out of the river. He held a golden axe in his hand. `Is this your axe, my friend? He asked the woodcutter. The golden axe was beautiful. It was also more costly than the woodcutter’s ordinary one. But the woodcutter was honest. `No!’ he said. `That is not my axe’.

The deva then showed him a silver axe. `Is this yours?’ he asked.

`No’, said the woodcutter again. `That is not my axe’.

Then the deva showed him his old axe. The woodcutter was happy to see it. `Oh, yes! This is mine!’ ha said happily.

The deva smiled. `You are an honest man’, he said. `You took only your axe. As a reward I shall give you the golden and silver axes too.’ the woodcutter thanked the deva and went home happily with the three axes.

Honest

Honest is important. People trust you and want to be friends with if you are truthful. Being sincere and truthful will make you feel happy and satisfied.

Suppose you break something in the classroom. Your teacher is angry and asks, `who did this?’ what would you do? Would you tell the truth? Would you try to avoid the teacher’s anger by lying? If you say that you did not do it, your teacher might punish the whole class. Is it right that others are scolded for what you did? Would you like to be punished for someone else’s mistake? If you tell the truth and say that you are sorry, your teacher will forgive you. You must be brave and tell the truth even truth even though it may be difficult to do that.