I was just joking...

I was eating ice-cream in a parlor few days ago. It so happened that a little girl about 2 years old was sitting right next to me. She had an amazing english for a 2 year old and was fond of chitchatting.
We quickly became friends and sat there chatting. I got myself another helping of a large triple scoop of dark chocolate ice-cream and nuts and as I sat I noticed the girl was looking at my serving. Just to tease her I said "do you want it?". As expected, she replied with a beaming yes.
To have some fun, I said "I won't give it to you". Immediately I realized my mistake because the girl got offended and became very sad.
I tried to cheer her up by offering the ice-cream again but there was no way she was taking it. She was not angry, she was just offended and sad. She continued to talk to me but did not even look towards the ice-cream. Her talk was not the same as before. For the next 15 minutes I kept telling her that I was just joking. I tried to get her to eat the ice-cream just to get out of my guilt, my ice-cream was as good as milkshake by now but she didn't even look at it.
Just one negative joke from me had damaged a budding friendship. I'm not sure if I will ever see that girl again but I know that I have made a permanent dent on her experience with me. Her parents were sitting nearby and didn't mind me speaking to her. Interestingly, they seemed to enjoy the whole drama of me pleading to their 2 year old.
Very often we make the same mistake of passing some casual comment, making a rogue remark, cracking a negative joke, being sarcastic, commenting about another person's appearances, personality, limitations etc. Sometimes we do this in private and sometimes in front of others. We think we are being funny without realizing that we might be hurting someone.
I am a strong believer in the power of words. Remember, in those old mythologies when the sage would curse the king and the curse cannot be reversed. There's a reason behind that too...
What has been articulated and uttered will happen. A word spoken whether positive or negative cannot be taken back.
Looks like philosophy, doesn't it?
Look back at your own life and see how many times you have something will happen and it happened... And you found yourself telling "dekha... Bola tha na...." "see... I told you"
How many times someone else has told you this very sentence.
Looks like it's not just a philosophy or Gyan...
The learning I take for myself is that even in a joke I will not use a negative statement.
I'm already working on it and trust me, cracking a positive joke is not easy...