Let me share a story with you that explains why you should never believe everything you hear about people until you confirm it.
In 2015, I enthusiastically attended a program called Career Right Track. It was a huge blessing. Career Right Track is a program organized by Christ Church to help people seeking employment. Experiences like this also teach us valuable lessons in integrity and humility, showing how to build Godly character through discernment, patience, and honest engagement with others.
During the program, one of the lecturers who taught Use of English gave an illustration I will never forget.
She wrote a sentence on a piece of paper:
“Write to express, not to impress.”
She handed the paper to the first person seated at the front and asked him to read it, memorize it, and then whisper it to the next person in the row. He was instructed to speak in a very low tone so that only the next person could hear him. The exercise highlighted the importance of precision and attention, teaching us how to focus on the right issues rather than getting distracted by irrelevant details.
The first person whispered exactly what he read:
“Write to express, not to impress.”
That person then whispered what he heard to the next person, and the message continued from one person to another. Before the message even reached the second row, it had already changed. Nobody was saying the exact sentence anymore, illustrating how people see things the way they are, often interpreting information through their own perceptions rather than reality.
We were asked to continue until it got to the last person. When the lecturer asked the final person what he heard, he said something completely different from what was originally written.
The words were lost.
The meaning was lost.
This is exactly what happens with information about people.
By the time a story reaches you, 99.9% of the time the original message has been altered. In many cases, people add their own assumptions because they didn’t fully understand what they heard but still want to say something. This reminds us that not all evidence is telling the truth, so we must verify facts before forming opinions or passing judgment.
That is why many stories we hear about people are false—not necessarily because someone intended to lie, but because the message was distorted along the way.
So whatever you are told about someone, if you have not personally verified it, you may just be listening to a lie. The word and the meaning may have been lost long before it reached you.
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