The first day, the boy discovered he had pounded 37 nails into the fence. But as the days went by, the number of nails he pounded into the fence decreased because the boy found that it was easier to control his temper than to drive the nails.
When he was finally able to get through the day without lowing his temper, he told his father. His father now told him to pull out all the nails in the fence.
When the task was compleded, the father stood by the fence with the boy and told him he had done a good job, but urged him to take a good look at the fence.
He said, "The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like the holes in this fence. You can put a knife into a person, and reguardless of how many times you say, 'I'm sorry,' the wound is still there. A verbal wound can be as bad as a physical one."