Old Farmer and His Sons



Once there was an old farmer in a certain village. He had four sons. They were very fond of quarrelling and used to quarrel among themselves all the time. So, there was no peace in the house and this made the old man extremely anxious. One day the farmer told his sons to bring some sticks and tie them in a bundle. He told them to break the bundle. They tried but could not break the bundle.

Each of them told his father that it was quite impossible to break it because the bundle was very strong. The farmer was an intelligent and experienced man. He said to them, “All right. Now I’ll do one thing for you and you’ll please do it.” The sons readily agreed to do that.

Then he untied the bundle. He then gave one stick to each of them and asked them to break it. This time, each Son could easily break each stick.

The sons got curious to know the reason of those activities. They all said to the father, “Why have you made us do these jobs, dear father? What good will come of it?”

Then the wise father told the Sons, “Wait a bit, dear Sons. I’m making it clear to you.” Now the father drew their attention to the tied bundle and the separate sticks. He explained to them that when the sticks were tied in a bundle, it was impossible for them to break the sticks. But when the sticks were made separate from one another, it was very easy to break them.

He asked them to take a good lesson from it. The old farmer could successfully make them understand that if they (the sons) remained united, they would remain as strong as the bundle of sticks. But if they remained separate from one another like the untied sticks, they would be as weak as a separate stick. He also told them that if they remained united, nobody would be able to do any harm to them. So he strongly advised them to always remain united and not to quarrel among themselves anymore in future.

The sons could realize everything and they promised not to quarrel or do any evil among themselves. Thus, the old farmer could effectively teach his sons the valuable proverb, “United we stand, divided we fall.”

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