a woman repeated a bit of gossip about a neighbour. within a few days the whole community knew the story. the person concerned was deeply hurt and offended. later, the woman responsible for the rumour learnt it was completely untrue. seh was very sorry and went to a wise old to find out what she could do to repair the damage.

"go to the market place," he said, "buy a chicken. and have it killed. then, on your way home, pluck its feathers and drop them one by one along the road." although suprised by his advice, the woman did as 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 all the feathers away. after searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand. "you see." said the old man, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get all them of back. so it is with gossip. it doesn't take much to spend a rumour, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong."

a woman repeated a bit of gossip about a neighbour. within a few days the whole community knew the story. the person concerned was deeply hurt and offended. later, the woman responsible for the rumour learnt it was completely untrue. seh was very sorry and went to a wise old to find out what she could do to repair the damage.

"go to the market place," he said, "buy a chicken. and have it killed. then, on your way home, pluck its feathers and drop them one by one along the road." although suprised by his advice, the woman did as 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 all the feathers away. after searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand. "you see." said the old man, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get all them of back. so it is with gossip. it doesn't take much to spend a rumour, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong."