Socrates was famous in ancient Greece for his knowledge. One day, one of his friends went up to him and said," Do you know about what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on for a minute," Socrates said. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the triple filter test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," Socrates continued." "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to think about what you are going to say. The first filter is truth. Have you made sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"Actually, I just heard about it and..." the man said.
"All right," Socrates said. "So you don't really know whether it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter--goodness. Is what you are going to tell me something good?"
"No, on the contrary..." the man replied.
"Okay," Socrates continued," There's one filter left--the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?
"No, not really," the man said.
"Well," Socrates concluded, "If what you want to tell me is not ,good or even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
