The Nails and the Fense Story
Once upon a time, there lived a boy. He was the only child of his parents. But he had a bad temper. He would easily get angry and taunt the people around him with words. His parents were unhappy with his bad temper. They warned him to control his anger many times, but they failed, he never listened to them
One day, the father had an idea. He gave his son a hammer, a bag of nails and a piece of fense. Then he said, “When you get angry, hammer a nail on this fense.” This was an enjoyable task for the boy, so he accepted. He hammered a nail on the fense whenever he lost his temper. After several days, the number of nails that he hammered began decreasing. After a while, he learned to control his anger and stopped hammering nails on the fense.
Then the father told him to pull a nail on the fense whenever he would control his anger. After a while, the boy pulled most of the nails. There were a few nails left. His father told him, “What do you see on the fense?”
“Some holes and some nails,” replied the boy. The father, “The fense here represents a person. The nails represent the words that you used when you lost your temper. Even if you pull the nail, the hole will remain there, and the fense will not be same again. Even if say sorry, the angry words that you said will leave a mark there. So, use your words carefully, don’t hurt people with them.”
Moral: We should use our words carefully. It can hurt people more than a physical wound
