Week 7 Story: The Stone-cutter and the Wise Woman

The Stone-Cutter and the Wise Woman

     Once upon a time there was a young boy living in a small village at the base of a large mountain.  The boy was quite imaginative and often requested to hear bedtime stories before he went to sleep; his favorite of which was The Man, The Moon. For years, every evening the boy's mother would retell the story of the blacksmith that had wished many times to be something else until a wise woman finally found the perfect version of him in the moon. Since the boy truly believed in the story he would often spend his days climbing to the stream by the mountain and hoping to find the wise woman that could grant wishes.

 As the years went by the boy became older and his imagination and belief soon diminished. His daily trips to the stream began to grow less and less as the young man was now old enough to become an apprentice to his father, the stone-cutter. The young man turned into a skillful stone-cutter and soon gained the respect of the people of the village for his fine crafting. His father was very proud of his progress and within a year gave the young man the entire shop to work in. Although the young man was well respected and skilled, he was never content with his days work.

One morning the young man was taking a fine piece of marble to a rich man's house and when he arrived he was in awe of the lifestyle that the rich man could afford. The young stone-cutter became bitter that he worked hard every day and still could not afford these luxuries. In his jealously the boy thought back to the story of the blacksmith that was able to simply wish to be something other than what he was and exclaimed, 

"I wish I was a rich man. I would not have to work hard every day and go home to the dainty house my parents call a home!"  

As soon as he exclaimed this a strange young woman approached him and said, "Be careful of your wishes, stone-cutter"  and walked away.

Confused about what the woman had said the young stone-cutter walked home. To his surprise he did not find an old home where his house used to be, but rather a lavish mansion full of the finest art and decorations. 

The stone-cutter was happy for his riches for a while, but soon became lonely. After all, his old friends in the village still spent there days working and did not enjoy spending their free time with the stone-cutter since he would constantly brag about his newfound riches.The loneliness deepened until one day a prince with an entire caravan of servants went through the town. The stone-cutter become jealous of the prince since he seemed to be surrounded by friends. 

Once again, in his jealousy he made a wish. "I wish I was a prince! I would never be alone." 

As soon as he yelled his wish he heard the voice of the young woman, "Be careful of your wishes stone-cutter."

In the blink of an eye the young stone-cutter was in a palace, surrounded by servants. Whenever he tried to speak to his servants they quickly responded and only answered with what they thought the prince wanted to hear. The prince soon realized that the servants were not true friends to him, as they were forced to do whatever he said. The prince became even more bitter, deciding that he was better off to be completely alone. The only problem was that he enjoyed the power of being a prince, and so he went to his gardens to contemplate how he could remain powerful but be alone. While sitting in the garden the sun shone onto his face and made the prince have an idea. "I wish to be the sun! I will be alone in the sky but have all the power of its light." 

The young man had barely noticed the servant girl tending to the garden, and was surprised when it was she that said "Be careful of your wishes. stone-cutter." 

Before the stone-cutter could respond he was transformed into the sun. Of course the stone-cutter was not happy as the sun, and he thought about how easy it was to transform to one thing to another. The stone-cutter  began to wish very recklessly and very  often. Each time the stone-cutter transformed he heard the same warning from the girl and each time he ignored her. Finally, after transforming over a dozen more times without finding happiness the stone-cutter had resigned to be a mountain. At least as the mountain he could see the village he grew up in and remember the good times he had with his family.

One cold day the young man saw a stone-cutter climbing up his rock and chiseling pieces off. The young man thought back to his previous life before the wishes and cried in defeat. It was now that he saw what he had to begin with, and without even thinking about being transformed the man quietly cried; wishing only to have his previous life back. Without a sound the young man was transformed back into a man with a chisel in his hand at the base of the mountain. The young stone-cutter cried in relief to have his original form back and did not notice the woman approaching him. 

The woman put a hand on the man's back  and said "As I said, you must be careful what you wish for. A wish for the wrong motivation will rarely turn out to be what you expect."

The young man apologized for all of the times he did not take her advice, and promised to appreciate his humble life from that day forward.

(The Wise Woman and the Stone-cutter, credit to Paul C at flickr)

Author's Note:

This story was based of the Japanese Fairy-tale of The Stone-cutter. In the original story a stone-cutter had heard of a mountain spirit that had the ability to grant wishes, but did not believe in the spirit until he was transformed. His first transformation to a rich man was not intentional, but after he realized the power they possessed he wished often hoping to find happiness in something else. Finally the stone-cutter had been turned into a mountain and was surprised that the stone-cutter was stronger than the rock that made him. He soon wished to be a stone-cutter once again and stayed a stone-cutter for the rest of his life. In my story I really wanted to relate it to the story that I had already rewritten, The Man, The Moon. I thought that it could be very interesting to tie the two stories together but make the motivations of changing very different. In this story I wanted the stone-cutter to make wished not out of respect for something else, but jealousy and bitterness. Because he was not making wishes for the right reasons, he was ultimately unhappy until he realized the worth of his life before the wishes came true. Ultimately, this story is about realizing what you have when you have it and appreciating yourself for who you are.

Bibliography:

The Crimson Fairy Book, Andrew Lang, illustrated by H.J. Ford (1903)