Der Holzhauer und Merkur

Landscape with Mercury and the Dishonest Woodman

In Aesop's Fables, the god Mercury asked a woodman if the axe he had lost in the water had been of precious metal. The honest man replied that it had not, and Mercury rewarded him with a gold axe. Seeing this, a dishonest woodman claimed he had lost a golden axe and was rewarded with an axe of iron.