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 all
the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three
feathers in her hand.
"You see," said the old sage, "It's easy to drop them, but it is
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."
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