Honesty is the Best Policy - Story for Class 11th and 12th

Honesty is the Best Policy is an oft-quoted proverb. It means honesty is always better in life than dishonesty. In whatever field an honest man may be, he is rewarded. This is the world of false show. Many times We show dishonesty to get temporary gains. We never realize that only honest work can give us satisfaction. It makes people trust you. There is a well known fable of an honest wood-cutter which shows that honesty is rewarded not only in heaven but also in this world.

Once upon a time, there lived an old, willowy, white-bearded hunch-backed, indigent wood-cutter in a certain village. Although he was very poor yet he was honest to the extreme. Honesty, patience, integrity, righteousness and contentment were his only wealth. He believed in the dignity of manual labor and regarded begging as a Curse. Therefore, he would work bγ the Sweat of his brow to win a few coins. He owned nothing except a donkey and an axe. It was his daily routine to go to the neighboring jungle, cut fire wood, carry it to the city and sell it to earn his livelihood. In this Way he could barely keep his body and soul together. river, he was hewing down some dry twigs. By an unlucky chance, his iron axe slipped from his hand and was engulfed by the swirling torrents below. The old man climbed down the tree and sat sad on the bank. As he was extremely poor and could not afford to buy a new axe, he stood to wonder how he would be able to earn his livelihood without his axe. He began to moan and groan and bewail his bad luck because he would certainly starve without his axe. With Sorrow-laden heart he started looking with his wistful eyes at the river which had swallowed his only means of earning the livelihood. The fast-flowing waves dampened his courage and in his helplessness he began to cry. Scalding tears rolled down his sunken cheeks and wetted his beard. He looked upward and prayed to God for help.

 It was his good luck that an angel passed by. The melancholic red-wrinkled aspect of the old man attracted the attention of the angel. He appeared before the old man in the figure of a young prince. Deeply moved by his tears, the kindhearted angel took pity on him and asked the reason of his sad plight/anguish/lamentation. The wood-cutter narrated briefly the whole incident and besought him to help him out of the plight. On hearing the story of the wailing and moaning miserable old man, the angel Consoled him and promised that he would restore the axe to him. But before that, he wanted to test his honesty. So, the next moment, he plunged into the rushing stream of Water and after a while brought out an axe of pure gold. He asked the wood Cutter, One day, he climbed up a tree growing on the bank of a deep river. Sitting on a bough somewhat bending over

"Is it yours?"

The wood-cutter refused to touch it even and said,

"No, it is not mine. How can a poor wood-cutter like me possess a golden axe."

It is not mine. How can a poor wood-cutter like me. he angel asked him to take it, but he refused to own such a lustrous and shiny axe. The angel swooped down into the water for the second time and surfaced near the bank with a beautiful silver axe in his hand. He again inquired whether it was his axe. But the honest wood-cutter did not take it even though the angel asked him again and again to accept it. For the third time, he dived into the stormy waves of the river and returned with an iron axe, the very axe which the wood-cutter had lost. Seeing his own axe, the wood-cutter sprang to his feet in ecstatic pleasure and pronounced in excitement,

"Yes, it is mine! It is mine!"

He received it in his scrawny hand while the tears of gratitude welled up in his eye. The wood-cutter thanked the angel for his generous help. The angel who actually wanted to test his honesty was profoundly impressed and greatly pleased with the honesty of the poor man who had rejected a fortune by refusing to claim what did not belong to him. He was so much pleased that he gave the other two precious axes to the wood-cutter as a reward for his honesty and disappeared. So it is rightly said that honesty has his own reward. It plays in the long run. Great are the people who are always honest. It is one of the most important teachings of Islam.

Possible Morals:

1. Honesty is the best policy.
2. Honesty never goes unrewarded.
3. Truth always triumphs.
4. Virtue is always rewarded.
5. Virtue is its own reward.