Moral Story: The Ugly Tree
A long time ago, there were thousands of tall and beautiful trees in a dense forest. They were happy and stood tall and proud. Among them, there was also an ugly tree whose branches were badly twisted, and its roots had uneven curves. All the trees made fun of that tree.
‘How are you, hunchback?’ the other trees always shouted, and their laughter made the tree feel sad. But, it never raised a voice against them. The ugly tree thought, ‘I wish I were as beautiful as the other trees. Why did God do this to me? Neither can I provide shade to the travellers, nor can the birds make their nests on me. Nobody needs me.’
One day, a woodcutter came to the forest. He took a look at the trees and said, ‘These trees are lovely, and I must cut them.’ As soon as he picked up his axe, the trees became frightened.
‘Chop, Chop, Chop’, and the trees started to fall one by one. ‘None of us is going to be spared’, screamed one of the beautiful trees. Soon, the woodcutter’s axe brought that tree to the ground.
By now, the woodcutter had come near the ugly tree. He had just raised his axe when suddenly he noticed how crooked the tree was. ‘Hmm! This crooked tree seems to be useless to me. I cannot make long straight logs of this ugly tree’, he thought. And he moved towards another beautiful tree. The ugly tree heaved a huge sigh of relief. The tree realised that by making it unattractive, God had actually given it a boon.
From that day, the tree never complained. It was happy with his crooked branches. It never forgot how it was spared from the woodcutter’s axe, only because it was crooked.
Moral Of The Story
The story teaches that everything has both advantages and disadvantages, and one should not hate what they have, as even perceived flaws can be a source of protection or benefit. In the story, a crooked tree, initially ashamed of its appearance, is spared by a woodcutter who needs straight timber, realizing its “ugliness” saved its life.
