The Sharpened Axe

There was once two lumberjacks who challenged each other to see which one could cut down more trees in a day? At daybreak, the first one began furiously chopping down trees. He worked up a sweat and by noon he had cut down 16 trees. Meanwhile the other lumberjack had only cut down 4, because he took the first two hours to sharpen his axe.

As he sharpened it his challenger laughed at him thinking he was doomed to lose the bet because of all that wasted time. That’s when things got interesting.

By early afternoon, the first lumberjack was slowing down. It took him almost an hour to cut down one tree, while his friend was picking up speed. How could this be? Certainly he was as strong as his friend.

Unfortunately, strength had little to do with it. It was all about whose axe was sharper. The sharper the axe—the quicker the trees came down. By late afternoon the second lumberjack who’d sharpened his axe, had passed his friend by several trees and won easily.