The Foolish Brothers
Barry and Keith were brothers, but they were always arguing. They argued about money, they argued about the weather, they argued about anything.
When Barry and Keith had a row, it was always Barry who came out on top. One day Keith said to himself, “I’ve had enough of this. I’m not going to let Barry push me around any longer. I’ll show him.”
Barry and Keith owned a jeweler’s shop in the high street. The next day a customer left the shop door open and Barry told Keith to shut it.
“Shut it yourself!” said Keith.
“I’m busy,” said Barry.
“Busy doing nothing, as usual!” said Keith.
“Shut the door!” said Barry crossly.
“No,” said his brother, “I will not shut the door. I didn’t leave it open. You shut it.”
Neither brother would shut the shop door. They argued and argued and argued, hour after hour … until it was quite dark and all the other shops had shut. All the shoppers had gone home but Barry and Keith kept on arguing.
When at last the town hall clock struck midnight, Keith said, “I know how to settle this argument. We will both sit here in silence until one of us speaks. The first one to speak must close the shop door. Do you agree?”
Barry agreed. So the two brothers sat in the dark in their shop, saying nothing.
At about one o’clock in the morning, two robbers came skulking down the high street. They couldn’t believe their luck when they found the door of the jeweler’s shop wide open. They slipped into the darkened shop and started to help themselves to all the gold and silver jewelry.
“Just look at all this lovely loot,” said the first robber.
“Who says crime doesn’t pay!’ said the second.
The two brothers sat in the dark watching the robbers steal everything of value in the shop. But neither brother spoke. The robbers left, bent double under the weight of their haul, and still the brothers remained silent.
A few minutes later, two police officers came scrolling down the high street. They saw the open door and came in to investigate. They could see that the shop had been robbed and when they saw Barry and Keith sitting in silence in the dark they thought they had caught the robbers red-handed.
“What’s going on here?” said the first policeman.
The two brothers did not answer.
“What are you doing in this shop at two o’clock in the morning?” said the second policeman.
Still the two brothers would not speak.
The policemen got very angry and said they would arrest Barry and Keith and lock them up for a very long time if they didn’t answer their questions.
So Barry said, “We have been robbed.”
As soon as he spoke, Keith jumped up and said, “I have won! I’ve won! You spoke first. You have got to shut the door!”
What to do
Read the six summaries. Only one fits the story. Which one is it? Say what is wrong with the other fife summaries?
Two brothers argue over who should shut the shop door. Two policemen help them to settle the argument.
Two brothers were too busy arguing and did not see two robbers stealing everything in their shop.
The two brothers lost everything they owned because two foolish policemen could not catch some robbers.
The two brothers argued about closing the shop door. Barry was the first to speak so he closed it.
Everything was stolen from the stupid brothers’ shop because they could not settle a foolish argument.
The two brothers argued so violently about closing the shop door that the police had to be called in.
