Once upon a time, in a small village deep in a great forest, there stood a most unusual tree.
The tree was tall, its leaves green all year round, and it could speak — but it could only speak the truth. No matter what anyone asked, it would always answer with whatever was most true.
Many villagers avoided that tree, because they didn’t want to hear a truth that might hurt.
But a ten-year-old girl named Kaew truly wanted to know if she was a good person.
One day, she walked into the forest alone, stood before the great tree, took a deep breath, and asked, “Am I a good person?”
The tree was quiet for a moment, then said, “Sometimes.”
Kaew frowned. “What do you mean, sometimes?”
“Yesterday, you told your little brother to go play alone because you didn’t want to be bothered, even though he was crying. That wasn’t the act of a good person.”
Kaew fell silent, her face growing hot.
“But last week, you shared your snacks with a child who had nothing to eat, without anyone telling you to. That was the act of a good person.”
Kaew kept listening without saying a word.
“Goodness isn’t something you have or don’t have,” the tree said slowly. “It’s something we choose to do each day. Some days you choose well, some days you don’t. A better question is — who do you want to be today?”
Kaew sat at the base of the tree for a long time, thinking of her little brother crying alone the day before.
She stood up and walked out of the forest, ran home, and spent the whole afternoon playing with her brother.
From that day on, Kaew returned to ask the tree every month — not to hear how good she was, but to remind herself that there was always something she could do better.
And every time the tree told her the truth, even when it stung a little, Kaew always said thank you, because she now knew that a painful truth was worth far more than a comfortable lie.
The villagers who watched Kaew grow up said she was the best child in the village — not because she was perfect, but because she never stopped trying to become better.
Moral: Some truths may hurt, but they help us grow. A person brave enough to see themselves honestly, and who keeps trying to fix what isn’t good, is the one who truly becomes better.
