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out near too should burning we do credulous is fire hears remark loss can receivers
Idle gossip and irresponsible chatter cause an immense amount of mischief. They often lead to the breaking up of friendships, to unjust prejudice, to of reputation, to any amount of sorrow and suffering, and even to ruin. But idle rumours could not harm if there were not many people who accept all they hear and pass it on to others in a still more exaggerated and distorted form. If there were no of stolen goods, there would be fewer thieves; and if there were no silly and credulous people, there would be fewer gossip mongers.
It wonderful how a rumour grows. In an old story, a traveller, walking along a road at night, noticed a glow-worm shining in a hedge a haystack. Soon after, he met a man and told him what he had seen, adding that he first thought the light was a match. When the next report of the incident was made, the haystack was on fire, and there was danger of the farmhouse catching fire . This man told another that a traveller had seen a burning match near a haystack and that there was danger of the haystack catching too. Finally, this storey ends with the farmhouse being burned down and the inmates suffocating. And all this arose out of the traveller's simple that a glow worm's light looked like a burning match!
Keeping in mind how stories get exaggerated and what harm false and silly rumours , we should keep an open mind and cultivate a critical attitude. When someone tells us something about another (for rumours are generally evil), we ask ourselves three questions. First, is our informant in a position to know the facts first hand? Second, is he a man whose word be relied on? Third, has he any motive, such as personal spite, to make up or exaggerate such a discreditable story? In nine cases of ten, we shall find that our informant is either repeating second-hand gossip, a man who is known to exaggerate or distort what he , or has some private motive for inventing exaggerating the story. In which case, we must suspend judgement and keep the matter to ourselves until can verify its truth.