Very short story · A1

The Bundle of Sticks

Aesop’s fable·~150 words·~1 min read

A father teaches his quarreling sons that together they are strong.

An old farmer had several sons. They were always fighting with each other. The father was sad, because he wanted them to live in peace.

One day he called them together. He gave them a bundle of sticks tied tightly with string. "Try to break this bundle," he said.

Each son took the bundle and pulled with all his strength. But no one could break it. Then the father untied the string and gave each son a single stick. Now they broke the sticks easily.

"You see," said the father. "When you stand together, like the bundle, no one can hurt you. But if you fight and stand alone, you are weak, like one stick."

Moral: Together we are strong; apart we are weak.

Tap any word in the story to see its meaning and add it to your vocabulary list.

Check what you remember

3 quick questions about the story. Scroll up to re-read any time.

Question 1
Why was the father sad?
Question 2
Could the sons break the whole bundle of sticks?
Question 3
What did the father want to teach them?
0 of 3 answered

You finished another classic!

Thank you for reading with ReadClassicly.

We’re building a free library of public-domain books for English learners around the world. If you’d like to help us grow, you can support the project.

Support ReadClassicly
Classicly is free and ad-free, made by one person. Support it on Ko-fi