Storytelling for Week 3: The Honest Oxen

On a dusty road, a team of oxen pulled a cart full of corn to the marketplace to sell. The oxen were as red as Oklahoma dirt with a few white splotches. They had strong horns that curled up high into the air. They were built to be working animals, and they wore a yoke over their necks that connected them to the cart of corn.

The oxen's sole job was to pull the cart for their master. So when the yoke suddenly broke one day, the oxen began to cry out for help.

"If we cannot work, we won't be fed," Mr. Ox said.

"Without our yoke, we're useless!" his wife lamented.

(Image information: "Young Oxen" from Wikimedia Commons.)

Because they couldn't pull the cart any further, they stopped in their tracks and worried. They were very concerned about where their next meal was going to come from.

Just then, Mercury, the messenger god, descended from the skies on his winged sandals. He wore a yellow tunic and a winged helmet. He produced a golden yoke from thin air, and in an attempt to comfort the worried oxen, he presented it to them.

"This must be the yoke that you have lost!" Mercury said triumphantly.

The couple of oxen sadly shook their heads.

"No," Mr. Ox said, "our yoke certainly wasn't made of gold."

Mercury's eyebrows crinkled in confusion. He had never met such an honest creature before.

Next he showed them a silver yoke.

"I see that I was mistaken before," Mercury said. "But surely, this is the yoke you have been missing."

Again, the married oxen shook their heads in disappointment.

"No," Mrs. Ox said, "our yoke also wasn't made of silver."

Mercury bit the inside of his cheek in contemplation. Why were these oxen so trustworthy?

Finally, he held out the actual yoke that belonged to the couple. Mercury had repaired it.

"That's our yoke!" Mrs. Ox cried.

She hopped forward happily.

Mercury helped the pair of oxen put their yoke back on.

"Thank you so much for repairing our dear old yoke," Mr. Ox said.

"It was my pleasure, Mrs. and Mr. Ox. And I must say that I've never met such an honest couple in my life! I expect most creatures would have claimed the golden or silver yoke."

"Oh no," Mr. Ox said, "we have no use of a fancy yoke. We just need one that helps us do our work."

With that, the oxen couple happily continued on their way to the marketplace with their cart of corn.

For many months after that when people heard the story, they purposefully lost an item in hopes of tricking Mercury into giving them something better. But Mercury was never fooled, and instead, he taught those dishonest folks a lesson.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by Mercury and The Woodman from The Aesop for Children with illustrations by Milo Winter (1919). In the original, a woodman loses his ax, and when Mercury tries to give him a golden one, the woodman explains that's not his. This goes on until the woodman has his original ax back, and Mercury gives him the gold and silver ones as gifts for being honest. I chose to make the main characters animals because I read so many fables about animals this week. I liked how honest the woodman was, and I wanted to retain that quality of the story.