The Chofetz Chaim uses the following story to describe how jealousy can distort a person’s thoughts and make him act totally irrationally:
A machlokes once broke out between the mayor of a small village and his neighbor. The neighbor warned him that he would bring a claim against him to the governor of the region and he would inform him that the mayor had broken many laws, which would get him into a lot of trouble.
When the neighbor’s wife heard this, she told her husband, “The mayor has been very good to us. He did us a favor and exempted our son from army service, even though this was against the law. If you inform on him to the governor, everything he did against the law will be revealed and our son will get arrested too!”
Her husband answered her in anger, “It is worth it! It is worth it for me and our son to be arrested if it will mean that the mayor loses his job!”