Before you repeat the rumor, ask who told you and how they’d know. Most stories fall apart right there.

Most rumors survive because nobody asks where they came from. Trace one back two steps and it usually thins into somebody who heard it from someone who was guessing, with the confident details added along the way by people filling gaps. The story sounded solid because it was repeated, not because it was checked.

Ask the two questions before you pass anything on: who told you, and how would they know. If the chain breaks, let it end with you. That is a quiet kind of decency and it costs nothing at all.