Other versions The appearance of other tellings of the story, with local variations, from Nigeria, Thailand, Tibet and Japan,"The Golden Hatchet". Yanagita, Kunio; Translated by Fanny Hagin Meyer (1986). Yanagita Kunio Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale. Indiana University Press. pp. 87-88. . seems to call in question the purely Greek origin of the story. The Thai account claims to originate from a Buddhist Jataka tale but gives no source for a comparison to be made. Since the main lines of the story in all three are the same as in Aesopic versions, one might infer that, whatever their original form, they have since been influenced by the European model. A certain kinship has also been observed between the fable and the account of the miraculous recovery of an axe from a river in the Jewish Bible.William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature, Cornell University Press, 2002, pp.42-4 There the prophet Elisha was travelling with some members of a religious community 'and when they came to the Jordan, they began cutting down trees; but it chanced that as one man was felling a trunk, the head of his axe flew off into the water."Oh master," he exclaimed, "it was a borrowed one." "Where did it fall?" asked the man of God. When he was shown the place, he cut off a piece of wood and threw it in and made the iron float' (NEB, Kings II, 6.4-6 ).
Other versions Though there are other tellings of the story, with local variations, from Nigeria, Thailand, Tibet and Japan,"The Golden Hatchet". Yanagita, Kunio; Translated by Fanny Hagin Meyer (1986). Yanagita Kunio Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale. Indiana University Press. pp. 87-88. , the main plot line in all of them is the same as in the Aesopic version, which suggests their European derivation. A certain kinship has also been observed between the fable and the account of the miraculous recovery of an axe from a river in the Jewish Bible.William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature, Cornell University Press, 2002, pp.42-4 There the prophet Elisha caused an axe blade lost in a river to float to the surface. Kings II, 6.4-6 
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