An old man had four sons. They were always quarrelling with one another over all kinds of things. This made the old man very unhappy.
When he grew very old, he called his sons to his bedside.
“I have something to tell you,” said the old man who lay on his bed, “I want each of you to bring two sticks and come to me.”
“Why, Father?” asked the young men.
“I’ll tell you. First fetch the sticks,” repeated the old man.
The men went out to the forest around the house and got two sticks each. They returned to the old man, still puzzled about what he would do with the sticks.
“Father, we have brought the sticks as you instructed,” they said when they came to the old man.
“Good. Now I want each of you to take one of your sticks and try to break it,” he instructed.
The young men smiled. This was so easy. There was a cracking sound as each man broke his stick into two.
“There you are, Father! We’ve broken the sticks,” they said happily.
“Yes; that was easy, my boys. Now put all the other three sticks together and give them to the youngest.”
The youngest picked the four sticks up.
“Break the bundle now,” ordered the old man.
The youngest tried to break it but he couldn’t do it. The old man asked the bundle to be given to each one and requested his sons to break the bundle of sticks. They sweated and groaned and bent themselves over, but the bundle did not break.
Sweating and frustrated, the eldest son finally threw the bundle down.
“What’s this all about, Father?” he demanded, “Why should we break these sticks when there are so many more available outside?”
“Exactly!” said the old man, “If you are together, all four of you, you can be very useful and strong, like the bundle of sticks. But if you quarrel and separate, you can be broken easily and then, you can easily be replaced by someone else who is stronger than you! Do you understand why I asked you to bring the sticks now?”
The sons of the old man understood the lesson he had taught them that day so well that for the rest of their life they were able to be strong and happy together.
Moral: Union is strength.
