A father and eight quarrellings sons

By Staff

Monday, June 1, 2009, 14:32

Once upon a time in a village, there lived a father and his eight sons. They worked in their field from early morning till late evening, very hard and lived happily in prosperity.

But the father was very sad about a particular habit of his children, they perpetually quarreled among themselves always; even for silliest causes.

The father advised the children and asked them to live in love but the sons could not keep their promise for long and they used to end up in quarrel the next moment.

One day the clever father, decided to teach the sons the lesson of unity, called everyone near to him.

Suddenly Sukumaran heard the footsteps of

He had in his hand a bundle of sticks. Then he called the eldest son and asked him take one stick from the bundle and break it.

He took a stick and could easily break it. Then the father asked him to take two sticks and asked the son to break them together. He could do that easily. And the next time he could break even three sticks together.

Now the father asked the son to take the entire bundle of sticks and break it holding together. But this time it was a hard task and one by one all the eight sons tried their hands; but no one could break it.

Now the father asked the children "Did you understand the lesson behind this"?

No explanation was needed for them as all of them understood what their father wanted them to learn that 'unity is power.'