Story about communication: The domino effect of rumors and gossip

Once upon a time, there existed a city in which there were only two parallel streets named 1st street, and 2nd street which were separated by tall buildings that only had windows towards their own street. The people in the city mostly walked only on their own street where they lived and were rarely going to the other one. But one day, a person crossed from the 1st street to the other, and residents of the 2nd street noticed that his eyes were full of tears. The person from the 1st street had no idea that his actions would cause that the people who lived on the 2nd street to spread rumors and gossip causing a domino effect that would end up destroying the city.

The rumors and gossip started with guessings like “Someone has probably died on the 1st street!” Then everyone started crying on the 2nd street. The rumor soon grew and grew, and the residents of the 2nd street were soon convinced that their neighbors had some gross misfortune. They were uncomfortable asking questions, and so, even though no one really knew what had happened, everyone believed that the neighbors were in some kind of big trouble. They became even more scared and cried more loudly.

In time, the residents of the 1st street heard the loud cries from the residents of the 2nd street and started to panic. “A war probably started or reached…