ESL Blogs

There was a boy who was always losing his

temper. His father gave him a bag full of

nails and said to him, “My son, I want you

to hammer a nail into our garden fence

every time you need to direct your anger

against something and you lose your temper

So the son started to follow his father’s

advice. On the first day he hammered in 37

nails, but getting the nails into the fence

was not easy, so he started trying to

control himself when he got angry. As the

days went by, he was hammering in less

nails, and within weeks he was able to

control himself and was able to refrain

from getting angry and from hammering

nails. He came to his father and told him

what he had achieved. His father was happy

with his efforts and said to him: “But now,

my son, you have to take out a nail for

every day that you do not get angry.”
The son started to take out the nails for

each day that he did not get angry, until

there were no nails left in the fence.
He came to his father and told him what he

had achieved. His father took him to the

fence and said, “My son, you have done

well, but look at these holes in the fence.

This fence will never be the same again.”

Then he added: “When you say things in a

state of anger, they leave marks like these

holes on the hearts of others. You can stab

a person and withdraw the knife but it

doesn’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m


sorry,’ because the wound will remain