A woman was gossiping with her friend about a man she hardly knew. That night she had a dream, a big hand was pointing down at her. Thinking that God disapproved her gossiping, she went to confession the next day. She got the old parish priest, Father O' Rourke. She confessed to him the whole thing. "Is gossiping a sin?" she asked the old man, "Was that the finger of God Almighty pointing down on me? Should I be asking you for absolution, Father? Have I done something wrong?"

"Yes," Father O'Rourke answered her. "Yes, you ignorant, badly-brought-up female. You have blamed false witness on your neighbour. You played fast and loose with his reputation, and you should be badly ashamed."

So, the woman said she was sorry, and asked for forgiveness. "Not so fast," says O' Rourke, "I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof, cut it open with a knife, and return here to me." So, the woman went home: took a pillow off her bed, a knife from the drawer, went up the fire escape to her roof, and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old parish priest as instructed.

"Did you cut the pillow with a knife?" he says.

"Yes Father."

"And what were the results?"

"Feathers," she said.

"Feathers?" he repeated.

"Feathers; everywhere, Father."

"Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind,"

"Well," she said, "it can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over."

"And that," said Father O' Rourke, "is gossip!"

From the movie, Doubt.