35. Aesop's Fables - Woodcutters and the Pine Tree

One day a woodcutter was mercilessly splitting a pine tree. 

The dying tree lamented. He cried in agony saying, 'All my relatives have been pulled down by the woodsmen. Their want for wood is unending. They are destroying nature's home for furnishing their homes. The generation of trees is in danger and humans pay no heed to this. But the wedges which these humans use to cut us are made from our wood. I dread the axe less than the wedges made from our wood. These wedges are used to facilitate the splitting and are more dreadful to me'.

As the tree went on crying, it final moment came and a huge pine log came thudding the earth.

Moral :  It is easier to endure blows from strangers than it is from those nearest to you.