Once
upon a time, an old man spread rumours that his neighbour was a thief. As a
result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven
innocent. After being released, the man felt humiliated as he walked to his
home. He sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.
In
court, the old man told the Judge, “They were just comments, didn’t harm anyone.”
The judge before passing sentence on the case, told the old man, “Write all the
things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home,
throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.”
The
next day, the judge told the old man, “Before receiving the sentence, you will
have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.”
The old man said, “ I can’t do that, the wind must have spread them and I wont
know where to find them.”
The
judge then replied, “the same way, simple comments may destroy the honour of a
man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. The old man realised his
mistake and asked for forgiveness.”
Moral:
Do not blame anyone without knowing the fact or truth. Your words
may ruin someone’s reputation without any fault of theirs.
