The North Wind and the Sun

One day the North Wind and the Sun got into an argument about which of them was stronger. Below them, a traveller walked along a road, wearing a warm coat.

That is all the proof we need, said the Wind. Whoever can make that man take off his coat is the stronger. Watch this.

The Wind took a deep breath and blew. It pulled at the coat and flapped the man’s hat, and the traveller — did the opposite of what the Wind wanted. He wrapped the coat tighter, buttoned it to the top, and bent into the wind, holding the whole thing shut with both hands.

The harder the Wind blew, the tighter the coat got. At last the Wind gave up, out of breath itself.

Then the Sun came out from behind a cloud. It did not blow. It did not pull. It just shone, gently, and the road grew warm. The traveller loosened his grip on the coat. The Sun shone a little warmer, and the man undid his buttons. A few steps further on, with his forehead damp, he took the coat off altogether and carried it over his arm.

The moral people usually draw is: gentleness gets further than force. That is worth arguing with.

Force is sometimes exactly right — if a toddler is running into the road, you do not shine warmly and wait for them to decide. And notice something the moral skips: the traveller never agreed to any contest. The Wind and the Sun were arguing about how to move him, and nobody asked him. He was doing what he wanted all along.

So which is it — does warmth win because it is kinder, or because it tricks people more smoothly? And can someone else ever really change your mind, or do they just make it easier for you to change it yourself?

What it is really asking

When you want someone to change what they're doing, what actually changes their mind?

How to tell it

This one is made for acting out: whoosh like the wind, then shine like the sun. Ask halfway through who is going to win, and why.

Where this story comes from

Aesop, “The North Wind and the Sun”

A Greek fable about two ways of getting what you want: force and warmth. It is one of the few old stories with no villain in it.

This is a retelling, not a translation. The words are ours; the story is theirs.