Honesty.

How many people are really honest out there? Do you go back to a store if you look at your receipt and notice that they undercharged? Or, do you say to yourself “That’s great! It was cheaper than I thought!” What are we obligated to do in such case as an Orthodox Jew?

Why am I bringing this up now? Well for starters it is Chodesh Elul. That means that Rosh Hashanah is creeping upon us and we need to be extra careful with what we do and how we act. The next is a personal story I just heard.

Payday. The day we all get paid and get excited about. Who wouldn’t? You finally get to see compensation for all your hard work that you have been for the past week or so since your last paycheck. You know the money you get? You already spend it before you get it. Well in this story something interesting happened.

The check was received and reviewed. And what do you know! The check is for more money than it should be. A raise was in affect for the beginning of the month, but the check was for work for the previous months work. So what happens now? Is the employee obligated to tell the boss of the mistake or just keep the extra bonus and not say anything, no one will notice? The accountant? I mean eventually they might figure it out, but when.

So being an orthodox Jew, and Chodesh Elul when the check was received, what was the first reaction? Go to the accountant and say, “the increase is too soon”. As the employee walked out of the office someone who overheard the conversation said, “fool”. The employee turned around and said, “ It is Elul”. And walked away. At least the employee felt that the right thing was done. Now it is up to the higher ups to do something about it.

So please, sign the guest book and offer your opinions and thoughts on this!