I have been looking for this for a while, and poof!!!! Steve VanHarn posted it.- Seems a good time to post it here. Thanks Steve


In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded
for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an
acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates,
do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd
like you to pass a little test. It's called the Test of
Three."
"Test of Three?"
"That's right,"Socrates continued "Before you talk to me
about my student let's take a moment to test what you're
going to say. The first test is Truth. Have you made
absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's
true or not. Now let's try the second test, the test of
Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student
something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad
about him even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass though, because there
is a third test - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want
to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really..."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is
neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at
all?"