Robert Louis Stevenson's fable of a bottle that grants any wish — and the terrible rule that comes with owning it.
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Each new word is hidden in a sentence. Read it aloud and say what you think the bold word means from the rest of the sentence — then reveal it and see how close you were.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
Keawe was a poor but clever Hawaiian sailor. One day, wandering through the fine houses of San Francisco, he met a sad-faced old man who showed him a strange white bottle with something living moving inside it. "An imp lives in this bottle," the man said, "and it is the shadow you can see. Whoever owns the bottle can have anything they wish for — money, ships, houses, whatever they desire."
But there were conditions, and they were terrible. The owner could never simply throw the bottle away or destroy it; it always came back. If a man died while he still owned it, his soul would be damned to burn in hell forever. And there was one more rule, stranger than the rest: the bottle could only be sold for cash, and always for less than the owner had paid for it. Sell it for more, and it would return to you at once.
The old man was desperate to be rid of it. Keawe, tempted and half-doubting, bought the bottle for fifty dollars. He tested it, wished the money back into his pocket — and there it was. The imp was real. Keawe now owned the most dangerous object in the world, and the price he could sell it on for had already begun to fall.
1. What could the owner of the bottle wish for, and what were the two worst conditions of owning it?
2. What was the strange rule about selling the bottle on?
1. The owner could wish for anything (money, houses, ships). But the bottle could never be destroyed, and if you died still owning it, your soul would be damned to hell.
2. It could only be sold for cash, and always for less than you had paid for it — sell it for more and it came straight back.
Keawe wished for a beautiful house, and it appeared, exactly as he had imagined it. Frightened of the bottle now, he quickly sold it to a friend for forty-five dollars — a small loss — and walked away free. The friend sold it on for less, and so it passed from hand to hand, its price diminishing with every sale, each new owner shedding it as fast as they could.
Time passed, and Keawe fell in love with a lovely young woman named Kokua. His happiness was complete — until he discovered he had caught leprosy, a disease that would cost him his home, his love and his future. Only the bottle could cure him. In dread, he set out to find it again, tracing it from owner to owner. When at last he found it, the price had already fallen frighteningly low: it now cost only two cents.
Here was the trap in its full horror. Keawe could buy the bottle, wish himself well, and marry Kokua. But two cents is almost the smallest coin there is. To sell the bottle on, he would have to find a buyer willing to take it for one cent — and after that, no sale would be possible at all, for there is no coin smaller than one. Whoever held the bottle when the price could fall no further would keep it forever, and be damned. Keawe bought it, was cured, married Kokua — and carried the secret of his coming damnation like a stone in his chest.
1. Why did Keawe have to go looking for the bottle again after he had got rid of it?
2. Why was the low price of two cents so terrifying rather than convenient?
1. He had caught leprosy, and only the bottle's wish could cure him and let him marry Kokua.
2. Because the price must always fall when it is sold. At two cents, there was almost no room left — soon no one could buy it for less, and the last owner would be damned forever.
Kokua saw her husband's secret misery and forced the truth from him. Rather than let Keawe be lost, she thought of a way out. In the French islands of Tahiti, they could use centimes — coins smaller than an American cent. There, the bottle could still be sold for less. But someone had to be brave enough, or foolish enough, to take it.
Kokua made a secret plan of her own. She hired an old man to buy the bottle from Keawe for four centimes, then bought it back from that man herself for three — taking the curse quietly onto her own soul so that her husband would go free. Keawe, discovering what she had done, was horrified: now he was saved but his beloved wife was damned in his place. So he in turn arranged, through a go-between, to buy it back from her for two centimes. Each of them was trying to sacrifice themselves for the other, and the price crept lower and lower toward the point of no return.
The bottle was now at one centime — the very last step. Then, in a waterfront tavern, Keawe met a wild, hard-drinking old boatswain, a reckless man who laughed at the idea of hell and said he was bound for it anyway. To him, a bottle that granted wishes and cost only one centime was pure profit. He bought it, cackling, and refused point-blank to sell it on. Keawe and Kokua walked home into the warm night, free at last — their souls saved, the bottle and its imp gone with a man who simply did not care.
1. How did Kokua try to save Keawe, and how did he respond?
2. Who finally took the bottle for good, and why was he the only possible buyer?
1. In Tahiti she secretly had the bottle bought back down to a lower price and took the curse onto herself. When Keawe found out, he bought it back again to save her instead.
2. A reckless old boatswain who believed he was already going to hell and did not care. Because he refused to sell it on, the curse ended with a man who had nothing to lose.
The whole story turns on a single word: if. If you own the bottle, you can have any wish. If you die with it, you are damned. If you can't sell it for less, you keep it forever. English has three main conditional patterns for talking about rules, likely futures and imaginary situations — and this story uses all three.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence with the correct verb forms.
1. If you sell the bottle for more than you paid, it always (come) back to you. (a rule that is always true)
2. If Keawe (find) a buyer tomorrow, he will be free. (a real future possibility)
3. If I (own) that bottle, I would be too frightened to sleep. (imagining — not real)
1. comes (zero conditional: if + present, present — an unchanging rule)
2. finds (first conditional: if + present simple, will + verb)
3. owned (second conditional: if + past simple, would + verb)
Each sentence uses the right conditional but the wrong verb form. Write the corrected verb.
1. If the price will fall to one cent, no one be able to buy it. (first conditional)
2. If Keawe would own the bottle at his death, his soul be damned. (zero conditional — a rule)
3. If Kokua didn't love him, she not take the curse onto herself. (second conditional)
1. will (first conditional: the if-clause stays present — "If the price falls…, no one will be able…")
2. is (zero conditional rule: "If Keawe owns the bottle at his death, his soul is damned")
3. would (second conditional: if + past simple, would + verb)
Fill each gap with the correct conditional form of the verb in brackets. Read it aloud once you're done.
The rule is simple and cruel. If you (die) with the bottle, your soul is lost. Keawe knows that if he (sell) it for less than a cent, he (be) free. But he thinks to himself: if there (be) a smaller coin in the world, this nightmare (end) tonight.
die (zero — a rule) · sells (first) · will be (first) · were (second) · would end (second)
Notice the shift: an unchanging rule (zero) → a real hope for the future (first) → an impossible wish (second, "if there were… it would end").
Hold on to these three — you'll need them in the Speak tab, where you'll weigh up the bottle's bargain out loud.
You have the story and the words. Now push the ideas outward — argue, disagree, change your mind. Do all of this out loud. There are no right answers here, only good reasons.
The whole terror of the bottle is one rule: it must always sell for less. Why is a shrinking price so much more frightening than, say, a fixed one? Think about how the story turns a simple sum into a countdown to damnation. Can you name a real situation — a debt, an auction, a game — where the maths itself becomes the threat?
Imagine the bottle is offered to you today for ten dollars. You could wish for anything. Would you buy it — and if so, what would you wish for first, and how quickly would you try to sell it on? Now imagine it costs only two cents. Does your answer change completely? Use the second conditional as you argue: "If I bought it, I would…".
Keawe and Kokua each secretly try to damn themselves to save the other. Is this the highest form of love, or is there something almost reckless in it — two people racing to destroy themselves? Would a marriage really survive knowing that one of you had been willing to go to hell for the other? Where else in life do people quietly take on a burden so the person they love never has to know?
The lovers are rescued only by a drunken sailor who believes he is damned already and simply does not care. It is an uncomfortable kind of happy ending — their salvation rests on his ruin. Does the story let Keawe and Kokua off too easily? And what does it suggest about who ends up carrying the risks that careful, respectable people manage to escape?
This is the heart of the lesson — do all of it out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than rushing through it.
Tell the story of The Bottle Imp in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard it. Move through the arc: the sad old man and the bottle's cruel rules → Keawe's wish and the falling price → the leprosy and the two-cent trap → Kokua's sacrifice → the reckless sailor who ends it.
Weave in the conditionals to make the bargain clear: use zero for the rules, first for Keawe's real choices, and second for what he imagines. Work in at least five key words (imp, grant, condition, damned, dread, bargain, diminish, plight, sacrifice, reckless).
Is there ever a wish so valuable that it would be worth the risk of the bottle — the risk of losing everything? Build an argument. Think about what people already trade away for money, comfort or success, and decide where, if anywhere, you would draw the line. Use the second conditional: "If the wish were…, I would…".
Tell a story in the same spirit — a deal, a shortcut or a temptation that came with a hidden cost. Lean on the grammar: what the rule was (zero), what would happen if you took it (first), and what you would do if you faced it again (second).
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: