This isn't so much a Legend of Zelda reference as it is a reference to a certain "fairy tale"--I've heard a Korean version of the tale, for example, with the dropped item being an axe a woodcutter drops.

Lots in western literature too.

If anything, you see a lot more of this in the .hack games than you ever did in LoZ.

"Was it a golden axe you dropped? Or a silver axe you dropped?" -Myst Springs, .hack game series.

The Harvest Moon game series has it too (at least the first one to SNES).

Come on, guys, it's in Aesop's fables. You won't prove anything with modern references.

comment #36210
I kept thinking it was in Arthurian legend somewhere. Aesop sounds right though.