Whatever story you spread about someone eventually circles the hallway and comes home with your name on it.

Information travels along the same paths it came in on, and it collects attribution as it goes. The person you told will tell someone, and by the time it returns, what people remember is not the story but who was passing it around. You end up described by what you chose to repeat.

When something juicy reaches you, decide whether you would say it with the subject standing there. If not, let it stop with you, which costs nothing and is noticed more than you think. Being known as someone who does not carry things is a quiet form of protection.