The Woman's Pillow

                                       

There once was a woman who did not like what a certain old and wise teacher would say to her. One day the old woman’s words were more than she could bear. It was the truth, but it made her so angry that she

 really began to butt. She went everywhere telling lies and evil stories about her teacher. She tried very hard to turn people against her with her terrible talk and gossip. But the more she talked, the sadder she became. At last she was very unhappy, and began to feel sorry for all the lies she had told.

Finally, in tears, the woman went to the teacher’s home to ask her to forgive her. “I have told so many lies about you”, she said. “Please forgive me.”

The old woman did not answer her for a long time. She seemed to be deep in thought. At last she said, “Yes, I will forgive you, but first you must do something for me.” “What do you want me to do?” she said, a little surprised. “Come with me up to the roof and I will show you.” she said, looking straight into her eyes, “but first I need to get something from my room.”

When the teacher returned from her room, she carried a big feather pillow under her arm.

The poor woman could hardly hide her growing curiosity and keep from asking what the pillow was for, and why they were going up to the roof. However, she kept silent.

A little out of breath, they finally reached the top floor. The wind blew softly. From the roof they could see far into the countryside that stretched out beyond the village.

Suddenly, without saying anything, the teacher ripped open the pillow and dumped all of the feathers out. The soft breeze blew, picked them up and carried the feathers everywhere: Out onto the other roofs, into the streets, under the cars, up into the trees, out into the backyards where the children were playing, and even out to the big highway, and on and on, farther still into the distance.

The teacher and the woman watched the feathers flutter away for some time. At last the old teacher turned to the woman and said, “Now I want you to go and pick up all those feathers for me.”

“Pick up all of those feathers?” she gasped. “But that is impossible!”

“Yes, I know.” said the teacher. “Those feathers are like your lies about me. What you have started you cannot stop, even if you are sorry. You may be able to tell a few people that you told lies about me, but the winds of gossip have carried your lies everywhere. You can blow out a match, but you cannot blow out the great forest fire that one match can start!”