Once upon a time in a rural region there was a man named, Cuoi, who was a lumberjack. His only possession was his ax. Like any other day, Cuoi took his ax into the deep forest in search of trees to chop down. After going across a small stream, Cuoi was surprised to come upon a lion's den. Looking back and forth, he only saw four cubs prancing in front of the cave.
Cuoi at once jumped upon the cubs and hit his ax onto each of the baby animals. In that moment the mother of those cubs arrived home. A loud, terrifying roar came from behind him, and Cuoi only had time to throw his ax and climb onto the top of the nearest tree in front of him.
From the top looking down, Cuoi saw the mother lion hovering over her cubs, who already had taken their last breaths. The mother only kneeled by her children for a short amount of time before she got up and left them to lay there. It turned out the mother went to a nearby tree close to the one Cuoi where was hiding, to take some of its leaves with her mouth then return to where her cubs were.
With the leaves in her mouth she started to chew and place it into her kids' mouths. After waiting a while, her cubs started to move, then their tails began to wag, and not much later all of the kids were able to jump up and down playfully as normal.
Moon Boy
Realizing that the tree from which the mother lion took the leaves was in fact the miracle medicine (herbal) tree, Cuoi waited until the mother led her cubs away to another place to slowly crawl down. Once he got to the ground, he walked toward the tree and began to dig the roots out to take home.
Along the way, Cuoi came across an elderly man lying unconscious on the grass. Cuoi stopped to look but the old man had already died. He immediately put the tree down. Then without any hesitation, Cuoi pulled some leaves off the branch and began to chew it.
Cuoi put the chewed leaves into the elder's mouth, and then tried to get it down his throat. Slowly the old man's skin began to glow, blood rushed back to his cheeks, and his eyes started to open. The elderly man could not stop thanking the boy for rescuing him and asked him to tell the story of what had happened.
With sincerity, Cuoi told everything that had occurred. After listening, the old man cried out, "Heaven! I have heard of this tree and it's known as the magical tree of resurrection (rebirth). I'm such a fortunate man to meet such a thing. Son, take good care of the tree and heal the world. Remember to never use dirty water on the tree, otherwise the tree will fly up into the sky."
Once the old man was done talking, he got up with his cane and left. This left Cuoi by himself to continue off with the tree, which he planted in the corner of his garden so he could easily care for it each day.
Cuoi always remembered the elder man's words and everyday he would water the tree with clear spring water. Ever since Cuoi had the precious tree, he had saved countless lives. Whenever he heard of someone who just closed his eyes, Cuoi would rush to take some of the leaves to him. Rumors of Cuoi and his magical power began to spread everywhere.
Once day, Cuoi was crossing a river and a dog was lying dead. With his compassion for the animal, Cuoi retrieved the dog to dry land and took a few leaves out in order to save the dog. The dog was very grateful towards Cuoi so it would tag along him happily. From then on, Cuoi has another loyal yet clever companion.