I understand the gist of the story of the wood-cutter and the ‘rukkha-deva’. It runs in the same track as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Both are ‘human-centric’ stories. The human (woodcutter) thinks even cutting wood is an honest work (even though cutting woods would not make him ‘better off’) and deserve respect. (Human) Jack climbs up the beanstalk, steals from the giant and finally kills the giant. He thinks nothing about the wrong of stealing and murdering the giant. Only that he becomes rich and live happily ever after.

How many times we hear (or read about) about good hunting, fishing, picking, winning,… stories. Have we (the winners) ever stopped and thought about the victims (losers) in the stories? Have we felt strongly enough about bi-lateral relations and ‘fair and just’ (in a Physics sense - to quote Sir Isaac Newton’s law: Action = Reaction ) or the law of ‘Kamma’ : action[s] cause[s] result[s] (in certain webs of relations - space and time).

[How I wish to be able to express the law of Kamma in simpler terms. The best I can now is somewhat like the ‘Internet’ and the ‘web of relations’ where things are interconnected and what happens to one node will eventually impact all nodes including the start node itself and the ‘actor’ who causes the disturbances. ;-) ;-) ;-) ]