George Washington did NOT chop down a cherry tree. The fable had young Washington 'fessing up to "barking" his father's prized sapling.
However, the whole story is a moral lesson invented by the patriot's first biographer - a former Anglican pastor and itinerant Bible salesman named Mason L. Weems.
A bible salesman / Pastor told a Lie?
A Moral Lesson?
Is that Something like a Standard Belief?
Maybe a Common Standard?