Same words, different meaning

Someone taught me this useful sentence to demonstrate the ambiguity of language, especially when it's written and not delivered face-to-face or over the telephone.

"I never said he stole the money."

Let me demonstrate by stressing different words in the above sentence...

I never said he stole the money

I never said he stole the money

I never said he stole the money

I never said he stole the money

I never said he stole the money

Can you see that those five sentences above contain exactly the same words spelt in exactly the same way, and yet each of those sentences has a different meaning from the other four.

Be careful of the written word. Other people can choose which word they want to stress and therefore the meaning they make out of what you write, whether you intend it or not.