There was a young man in our community who talked too much. He talked about everything he saw. This young man was totally honest. He never made things up. He just talked about what he saw.

If he happened to see the store owner visiting the home of a local farmer while he was out checking his set hooks, and his wife was home alone, the lad reported this on the town square. If he saw the preacher slipping in his back door with a pint of whiskey, he informed the parishioners at the church’s front door the next Sunday. This caused many problems in our community because the truth is often more damaging than outright lies.

The problem disappeared in a dramatic fashion one summer day. The lad was walking along a rural road when he came across a huge turtle. The beast was sitting near the road ditch, and as the lad passed, he heard a slow voice say “You-talk-to-much!”

Well, needless to say the young man was startled. No one was in sight but the turtle. He walked on down the road a short distance and the voice came from behind him again. “I-said,-You talk to much!”

The lad ran into town and reported this strange event to a number of people hanging around the hardware store. Because he had never told a lie, the old men agreed to go to the site to see for themselves if the turtle had talked. They gathered around the beast and the young man said, “Tell these men what you told me.” The turtle said nothing.

“You told me something this morning. Tell these men,” the lad demanded. The turtle remained quiet.

The old men started laughing at the lad and declared that they would never believe anything he said again. They walked back to town leaving the lad standing alone with the turtle.

The shocked and troubled lad started to walk away when the turtle’s voice followed him down the road.

“I-tried-to-tell-you. You-talk-too-much!”