A woman repeated a bit of gossip about a neighbor. Within a few days the 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 the feathers all away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
"You see," said the old sage, "it's easy to drop them, but it's 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."
Klebeta.
Žena po troške rozširovala klebety o susedovi. V priebehu niekoľkých dňoch už všetci v jej okolí už poznali ten príbeh. Osoba, o ktorej sa klebetilo bola veľmi zranená a urazená. Neskôr sa žena , ktorá širila klebety dozvedela, že táto klebeta bola úplne nepravdivá. Žena hlboko oľutovala svoj skutok a tak zašla za starým mudrcom, spýtať sa ako by mohla napraviť škodu.
"Choď do tržnicu, " povedal jej múdrc, "a kúp si tam zabité kurča. Potom cestou domov, vyšklbuj mu všetké peria a odhoď ich po jednom pozdĺž cesty domov."
Napriek tomu, že žena bola prekvapená touto radou urobila tak ako jej múdrc povedal.
Ďalší deň jej múdrc povedal, "teraz choď a pozbieraj všetké to perie, ktoré si včera porozhádzovala pozdlž cesty a prines ich ku mi."
Žena šla po tej istej ceste, ale na jej zdesenie, vietor všetko perie rozfúkal. Po hodinách hľadania sa vrátila iba s troma pierkami v ruke.
"Vidíš," povedal jej starý mudrc, "je ľahké rozhádzať ich, ale je nemožné pozbierať ich späť.
Tak je to aj s klebetami. Nie je ťažko rozšíriť klebety, ale ak to raz urobíš, nemôžeš už nikdy napraviť spôsobené zlo."
