Dear Richard,
Zeng Shen (曾參) was one of the Confucian students. His good conduct was well known. He was also a famous role model on treating parents well.
Zeng Shen lived together with his mother. One day, Zeng Shen was away from home. One of his neighbours brought some news from the market, saying that Zeng Shen got troubles with people in the market and had killed someone. At first, his mother did not believe the news, as it did not match with Zeng Shen's character. She thought that it might be a mistake. After a while, another neighbour came from the market and told her the same thing. Her thought of the news being a mistake started to lose its feet. However, she still thought that his son would never be a murderer. When the third neighbour told her the same thing, she turned to believe the news. She was very worry about Zhen Shen, about the family and about her remaining life if Zhen Shen got in jail. Her trust to Zhen Shen was completely lost.
Richard, Zeng Shen didn't actually kill anyone. The Zeng Shen in the news was another person who by accident had the same name. If you were the mother of Zeng Shen, what would you do when you heard the news? How would you learn from this story to handle rumours or while you have heard something bad about other persons?
With love, Dad
p.s. Confucian was a very famous philosopher in China. He taught people the way to handle relationships. He had a strong influence on Chinese culture. Different from the western, his teachings were leading people to a harmony society, sometimes with a compromise on individualism.