Do Not Be Slave of Your Words………..

Once upon a time, an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested and put behind bars for no fault of his own. After a long time, the poor man was proven innocent. After being released, he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.  In the court, the old man told the judge very casually as if nothing untoward had happened, ‘They were just random comments, they did not harm anyone.’

The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man, ‘write all the bad things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut it up into little pieces and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out of your car window. Tomorrow, you come back to hear the sentence.’  The next day, the judge told the old man, ‘Before receiving the sentence, I want you to go out and gather up all the pieces of paper that you threw out of your car window yesterday.’

The old man said, ‘I cannot do that. The wind spread them all over the place and I will not know where to find them.’ Then the judge replied, ‘The same way, simple words and comments said in fun, may destroy the honor of a person to such an extent that a person will not be able to fix it. For the rest of his life he will be suffering for your actions. If you cannot speak well of someone, do not say anything at all. Do not slander him unnecessary. Let’s all be masters of our emotions, so that we will not be slaves of our words.’

He further said, ‘Gossips are worse than thieves because they steal another person’s dignity, honor, reputation and credibility which are impossible to restore. So remember, this: ‘when your feet slips, you can always recover your balance but when your tongue slips, you can never recover your words.’  

Always keep hoping for good for others. As the Chinese people say: 

‘Keep a green tree in your heart, the singing bird will surely come.’ 

Live Simply, Look Fab and Enjoy Life……………….