Thirukkural-On Wealth-Avoidance Of Faults-Kural-434

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As faults are one"s worst enemy leading to ultimate ruin,
It is wise to guard against all faults.

The wise king is one, who guards against all faults, which render him vulnerable to accusations and attacks.

The relationship between 'Kutam' (fault) and 'Atram' (ruin) are very well brought out in this Kural, justifying the alternate reading, proposed by Manakudavar in his commentary of Kural 421.

In the New Testament of the Bible, the Lord Jesus when confronted by a demand of Pharisees and Saducees, that a woman, who had sinned against chastity, should be stoned to death, told those in the crowd, that, among them the absolutely faultless person should throw the first stone. There was none left in the crowd after this direction, to take up the challenge. (John: 7, 53, 8-11)

This shows that most people have their own faults and are very vulnerable in such a context, their own reputation being so obviously brittle. When that is so, an attitude of 'forgive and forget" would be the better course to adopt. But the ruler, whose job is to spot and take action against the faults of others, should, therefore, protect himself against the vulnerability created by his own small faults.

The wisest thing for him to do is to guard against all faults.