remember reading this story a long time ago about a judge who wrote his orders and sent them down to the lower offices to be followed. In the order, he did not want the man hanged, but instead he wanted him set free to live. Someone added a comma in the sentence and the order took on a who new meaning and the man was killed. It was a lesson for us in English how a simple mistake can be made when a comma is put in the wrong place.trying to understand whether you mean kill him and live free, or is it kill him and not free. I will answer it the way i think i understand it. what is coming out of this sentence, is a consequence. Its feels like someone is being given an ultimatum here, they need to choose what they want to happen to them. let me give an example, lets say this is a couple that has been together for while, but they have been facing challenges. Maybe the woman has been constantly abused by her husband and when she consults her friends on the matter, she is told, just get rid of this person and finish your worries. In other words to be free of this abuse just kill him, and you will not have to go through this kind of pain again. it's a choice someone is being given to choose.killing him means you will be put in a jail for a sentence of murder. In this area, you will not live free. That is the way I see the statement. If there are some that loves to give additional meaning I would love to read it. I was fumbled to read the first answer but for me this is what I understand. If you will kill someone, you will be in prison for a sentence. You will be in jail depending on how long because some people are put on Parol that they can only serve in jail for 10 to 15 years and they will able to come out after that. If you admit the murder that you did, your sentence will get short as you expect it to be long. That is why before killing someone, make sure you think about it and of course, choose not to kill so that it will not ruin your life.short story about how 'comma kills a man'. It shows the importance of punctuations in English language. The story is like this. Once upon a time, a learned Judge wrote the verdict in respect of a murder convict and send it to his lower officers for implementing it. What he wrote? What orders did he give?
He wrote his order as "Hang him not, let him go". When the judge's order went down the officers to execute the order, they made a mistake in putting that simple comma. What they intimated to their subordinates is "Hang him, not let him go". Because of this simple mistake committed by the court's lower officers, an innocent's life was lost.