Near to a town there was a small area of bush land which, the people said, was the private property of the forest spirits. A man decided he would make his farm on this land, and only laughed when his friends begged him not to. He had no respect for either spirits or the opinions of other people.
On the first day he cut some bushes and went home. Next morning he found all the other bushes had been cut. He felled a tree and on the third day he discovered all the other trees had been felled.
“I am the happiest and luckiest of men,” he thought; “I won’t have to work hard this year, for the Forest spirits are my slaves.”
He lit a small fire and went home. During the night all the bushes, trees and stumps were burned.
In the morning he told his wife to plant one seed of rice, and leave a basket of rise grain there overnight. During the night the seed was planted throughout the field.
At harvest time he cut one stalk of rice, and then went home already counting the profits he would make.
But when he returned in the morning he found all the rice crop had been harvested…and taken away. His crop had disappeared.
Which proves the people as a group are wiser than any single man.