The "bad" news about the pastor spread like wildfire. And, quite frankly, it hurt the pastor in many ways. Church and Sunday school attendance dropped. People stopped volunteering for church committees. The pastor's children were shunned by some of their playmates. When the woman realized what she had done, she really felt guilty, so she went to the pastor and confessed. She asked his forgiveness.
"I forgive you," he said in an honest tone. "But, there are two or three things I'd like you to do, if you would," he said. "You don't have to, but I was hoping..."
"What?" the woman asked, wanting to do something to ease her guilt.
The pastor continued, "Please go home and kill a chicken. Bring me all of the feathers in a bag. Come back after you have done it. Don't ask any questions right yet. I have a plan."
The woman was perplexed, but she went home and chose a nice plump chicken. After she had killed and plucked it, she went back to the pastor.
"Good," he said. "Now, we're almost done. Please go and drop a handful of feathers on each of the street corners in town. Then, come back once again. Don't ask any questions. It'll all work out."
The woman was enjoying this little game. It almost made her feel like her guilt was being erased. So she rushed out, and thankful that the town only had a few streets, left a pile of chicken feathers at the corner of each intersection in town. Then, she returned to the pastor, eager to hear the next step in this strange procedure.
"Thank you," said the pastor. "One more step, and you will have helped me a lot. Please go back to those intersections and pick up all the feathers you left. Then, go home. We're done."
"But, but, I can't do that," the woman explained, not quite getting it yet. "The wind, traffic, and pedestrians will have spread those feathers everywhere. There's no way that I can recover all those feathers."
"And, so it is with gossip," he finished. "Though you're forgiven, the damage remains and cannot easily be undone."