Three sons and a bundle of sticks

Once upon a time, an old man lived with his three sons in a village. His sons were hard workers. Still, none of them agreed with one another and quarrelled all the time. The old man tried a lot to unite them but failed. While the villagers were surprised at their hard work and efforts, they also made fun of them due to their fights.

Months passed by and the old man fell ill. He asked his sons to stay united, but none of his sons took any notice of what he said. Hence, he decided to teach them a practical lesson so that they would shed their differences and stay united.

The old man told his sons, "I will give you a bundle of sticks. Separate each stick and you will have to break each stick into two pieces. The one who breaks the sticks quickly will be rewarded." All of them agreed.

The old man gave a bundle of 10 sticks to each one of them and told them to break it into pieces. All the sons broke the sticks into pieces in minutes. And again they started to quarrel among themselves as to who came first.

The old man said, "Dear sons, the game is not over. Now I will give another bundle of sticks to all of you. You will have to break the sticks as a bundle, not as separate sticks." The sons agreed and tried to break the bundle of sticks. Unfortunately, they could not break the bundle. They tried very hard but failed.

All of them informed the father about their failure.

The old man replied, "Dear sons, see! you could easily break the single sticks into pieces, but you were not able to break the bundle! The sticks were the same. So, if you stay united, nobody can cause any harm to you. If you quarrel every time with your brothers, anyone can easily defeat you. I want you to stay united."

The three sons understood the power of unity and promised their father that whatever the problem, they would stay together.

Moral: Unity is Strength!

source: www.kidsworldfun.com

The honest woodcutter

Once upon a time a poor woodcutter lived in a small village. Though he was very poor he was always an honest and a god-fearing person. On a very hot day, he took his axe and went into a nearby forest in search of firewood. After a long search, he found one good tree near a river deep in the forest.

As the woodcutter was cutting down the branches, his axe slipped from his hands and fell into the river. The river was very deep. So he couldn't get into the water to recover his axe. He started crying.

Suddenly, an angel appeared from the river. She asked why the woodcutter was crying. The woodcutter told her about his axe which had fallen into the river. The angel dived into the water and after some time came out with a golden axe in her hands. The woodcutter refused to accept the golden axe.

The angel again went into the water and came out with a silver axe and gave it to the woodcutter. Again the woodcutter refused saying that his was not a silver axe. The angel dived into the water again. This time she came out with the woodcutter's iron axe.

The woodcutter happily accepted his axe and thanked the angel. The angel who was pleased with his honesty presented the gold and the silver axes to the woodcutter.

MORAL: Honesty always gets rewarded.

source: www.cuttees.in