In China, there was a woodcutter who used to depend on woods for his living. One day, the woodcutter went out to cut some firewood and discovered that his favourite axe was missing. He couldn’t find it anywhere. Then he noticed his neighbour’s son standing near the woodshed. The woodcutter thought, ‘Aha! That boy must have stolen my axe. I see how he lurks about the shed, shifting uneasily from foot to foot, greedy hands stuffed in his pockets, a guilty look on his face.
I can’t prove it, but he must have stolen my axe.’ A few days later, the woodcutter was surprised and happy to come upon the axe under a pile of firewood. “I remember now,” he said, “Just where I’d left it!” He felt very sad that he was thinking that the boy had taken his axe. The next time he saw his neighbour’s son, the woodcutter looked intently at the boy, scrutinizing him from head to toe. ‘How odd!’ he thought, ‘This boy has lost his guilty look. We always doubt wrong things when we are in trouble.’
