Once an old man spread some rumors that his neighbor, a young man, was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested and put in jail. Days later the young man was proven innocent and was released. After been released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In court the old man defended himself in front of the Judge: "But they were just comments, they didn't harm anyone.."
The judge thought a little, and before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: "Write all the things you said about that young man on a piece of paper. Cut that paper up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow you comeback to hear your sentence."

The next day, the old came in the court. The judge told the old man: "Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of that paper that you threw out yesterday."

The old man said: "I can't do that! The wind spread them and I won't know where to find them."
The judge then replied: "The same way, simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can't speak well of someone, you must not say anything about him."

REFLECTION
A great forest can be set on fire by just a small spark. Likewise, our tongue also is like a fire. A bad tongue can set the whole course of his life on fire, and can itself set on fire to be ruined totally. Whereas the mouth of a righteous man utters only words of wisdom, and his tongue speaks only what is just. Let's all be masters of our tongues, so that we won't be slaves of our words. Let us keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking lies and gossips.