Once upon a time, a woodsman used to go out every morning to collect wood.

One rainy morning, the woodsman left his house as usual, and when he reached the place where the wood was, he found a beast of prey lying on the ground.

The beast of prey said to the woodsman: “I want to help you because you are poor.”

The woodsman was very happy and the beast of prey kept helping him until he became rich.

One rainy night, the beast of prey decided to go to the woodsman’s house. When he got there, he saw some men sitting with the woodsman, so he decided not to enter in fear of scaring them.

He hid in a corner where no one could see him and heard one of the men asking the woodsman how he became rich.

“I made all my money with my own effort,” answered the woodsman.

When the beast of prey heard this, he became angry and left the woodsman’s house in sorrow because the latter hadn’t mentioned him at all.

In the morning, the woodsman went as usual to the place of the beast of prey. He found him sick.

“What’s wrong, dear friend?” asked the woodsman.

The beast of prey answered: “I am sick.” “Is your axe sharp?” he added.

“Yes, it is,” said the woodsman.

The beast of prey said: “Would you please hit me hard with your sharp axe?”

The woodsman was surprised but he hit the animal so hard on the head that he fell to the ground bleeding.

The woodsman thought that the animal had died, so he left him and returned home.

A few days later, the woodsman returned to his work as usual and saw the beast of prey still alive, so he called him saying : “I am sorry my friend, that I hit you and left you for dead.”

The animal said: “Look at my head, is my wound healed?”

“There is no trace of your wound,” replied the woodsman.

The animal said: “The wound that you caused to me when you hit me is cured now and doesn’t hurt anymore, but what you said to the man caused a deeper wound in me that won’t seem to heal.” “Tell me why did you deny my help to you?”

The woodsman was ashamed and started to apologize to the beast of prey, but the latter looked at him angrily and said: “Get out of here before I eat you.”

In the end, the woodsman ran away to save himself.