The
gossip
A woman repeated a bit
of gossip about a neighbor. Within a few days the whole community knew
the story. The person it concerned was deeply hurt and offended. Later
the woman responsible for spreading the rumor learned that it was
completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old sage
to find out what she could do to repair the damage.
"Go to the marketplace,"
he said, "and purchase a chicken, and have it killed. Then on your
way home, pluck its feathers and drop them one by one along the road."
Although surprised
by this advice, the woman did what she was told.
The next day the
wise man said, "Now go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday
and bring them back to me."
The woman followed
the same road, but to her dismay, the wind had blown the feathers all away.
After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
"You see," said the
old sage, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get them back.
So it is with gossip.
It doesn't take much to spread a rumor, but once you do, you can never
completely undo the wrong."
Author: Unknown
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