A father had a family of sons who were always fighting. He had no luck trying to stop their arguments with words, so he decided to teach them a lesson.
He told his sons to bring him a bunch of sticks. He took the sticks and gave them to his eldest son and asked him to break them. The eldest son tried with all his strength but was not able to do it. The other sons tried and were also unsuccessful.

The father then separated the sticks and put one into each son's hand. He asked his sons again to try and break the sticks. They broke them easily.

The father said, "My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be like these sticks together; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as a single stick."