The old woodcutter

Once upon a time there was a miserly old woodcutter who lived alone in a cabin in the forest. Every day he felled and accumulated more and more logs, obsessed with adding to his already huge pile of wood.

One day, as he was cutting down a tree, a squirrel warned him:

-Stop, old man! If you keep cutting down trees like this, soon there will be no forest left and we animals will have no home.

But the woodcutter, blinded by his greed, ignored the squirrel and went on felling relentlessly. Soon, the trees were exhausted and the pile of logs grew so large that it crushed his hut.

Without home or sustenance, the greedy woodcutter wandered hungrily through what was once a lush forest. The animals, pitying him, offered him their last acorns and berries.

-If you had been less greedy and more generous to nature, you would not be in this miserable situation today,- the squirrel scolded him.

The old woodcutter finally realised that his greed had led him to ruin and absolute scarcity.