A sailor had been working on a ship for three years. One day the sailor got drunk in the night.
This happened for the first time. The captain recorded the incident in the register as, "The sailor was drunk tonight."
The sailor read this thing. The sailor knew that this one sentence would affect his job very badly.
So he went to the Captain, apologized and told the Captain to add to whatever he had written that this happened for the first time in three years, because that was the whole truth.
Captain flatly denied his point and said that whatever I have entered in the register. That is the truth.
After a few days it was the turn of the sailor to fill the register. He wrote in the register - "The captain has not drunk alcohol tonight." The captain read it and told the sailor to either change this sentence or write something else to write the whole thing, because it was clear from what was written that the captain drank alcohol every night.
The sailor told the captain that whatever he had written in the register was true.
Both the things are true, but the message that is received from both is like a lie.
Meaning :
First- We should never talk in such a way that despite being right, gives wrong message? And second- after listening to something, before forming your opinion or reacting on it, you should think once whether there is any other aspect of this matter.
In short, we should avoid half-truths.