Morning Muse 61 : Climb the Wall Before You Judge

What Is the Truth?

Once, there lived a storyteller who grew weary of weaving old, fabricated tales. He longed for something real—a story drawn from life itself.

So he packed his bags, left home, and rented a small cottage in a quiet village. For a whole month, he roamed the lanes, talked to strangers, and listened to whispers… but not a single “real” story came his way. Disheartened, he decided to give up his search.

The very next day, as he sat by his window, he heard a woman shouting from beyond the tall wall behind his cottage. Curious, he listened. From the sound of it, an angry mother-in-law was scolding her daughter-in-law.

He disliked the bitterness in her voice… but at last, here was drama! Here was his story.

Day after day, he eavesdropped and carefully penned the heated exchanges. Though he had never seen the women, in his mind, the mother-in-law became the villain of the piece.

When the story neared its end, he decided he must see the characters before finishing it. So one afternoon, he climbed the wall.

What he saw stunned him.

The “cruel” mother-in-law sat in a wheelchair, frail and struggling to reach some food kept just beyond her arm’s reach. Nearby, the daughter-in-law lounged lazily, watching without lifting a finger.

The old lady lost her balance and fell—her cries now directed at the indifference she endured daily.

The storyteller’s pen paused. The villain in his story was no longer the same. He rewrote the ending entirely—and in that moment, he learned his greatest truth:

Never judge a story when you’ve only heard one side.

From afar, our eyes see shadows; only when we come closer does the full picture emerge. Reality often lives beyond the wall we have yet to climb.

Lesson: Seek the whole truth before forming an opinion. What you think you know may be far from reality.