By Wang Ying
I have yearned for the life of the rich since I was a child, but I could not fulfill my wish. After getting married, every time I saw others wore nice things or lived in good houses, I would admire and be jealous of that, and I also wanted to enjoy the extravagant life like that. In order to realize my desire, I tried every means to make money. Seeing my neighbor made more money selling fruits and it didn’t take much capital, I also started a business selling fruits.
Despite Large Sale Volume in Selling Fruits, I Gained Small Income
When I sold fruits at first, I just thought: “Neither young nor old are cheated and everything is fixed price,” “Small profit, large sale volume.” So when I sold fruits, I didn’t give less quantity to my customers, nor did I mind them tasting some fruits before buying or even taking one more away. They all said that I was easy-going. And I had thought that since so many people came to buy my fruit, I could certainly earn more money. However, when I calculated my earning in the end, I found that I could just earn over twenty yuan a day.
Earning More Money by Changing the Sliding Weight
One time, I told my difficulty in business to a counterpart, my neighbor. She said in surprise, “How could you do like that? You can’t give your customers enough quantity, or you will earn little money. After all, they would momentarily eat the fruits after buying and wouldn’t weigh them again. So they won’t know if the fruit is short weight. In addition, you can’t sell them at too low price, or how will you earn money?” I felt what she said was reasonable. So I took her advice and changed from a steelyard with a 0.5kg sliding weight to a steelyard with a 0.45kg sliding weight.
At first, when the customers bought less, the short weight was not obvious. But when they bought 4 or 4.5kg at a time, I would give them short weight of 0.4kg or 0.45kg, which made me feel accused in my conscience. Every time encountering this, I would give them 0.25kg extra or intentionally tell them that I gave them 0.15kg or 0.2kg more; the customers were happy to hear my words. In this way, I just felt steady a little. But after a fair, I still couldn’t earn much money. I saw other fruit-sellers all used the steelyard with a 0.45kg sliding weight, and even some of the sliding weights they used were less than 0.45kg. They had sold fruits for so many years, but no one came to find fault with them. It seemed that this method was available, so I also became bold.
One time, I went to a market. There were many people who came to buy things to visit their relatives and none of them weighed what they bought. So I used the steelyard with a 0.45kg sliding weight. When I sold out of fruits and calculated how much I earned, I found I earned over 90 yuan one day, which was several times more than before. I was very happy, thinking: It seems that I have to use this steelyard in future. Although I knew that what I did damaged others’ interests, yet if I didn’t do like this, I would earn less money. Especially when I saw other fruit-sellers even use the steelyard with a 0.4kg sliding weight to weigh fruits for those who were going to buy fruits to visit relatives, who bought fruit for their children waiting aside to eat, or who were young lovers, etc., I felt somewhat less fearful. As time passed day by day, there was no one finding fault with me, so I became bolder and bolder and the perception of my conscience disappeared slowly.
Doing a Swap Secretly to Sell out of Defective Fruits
Once, I noticed that the unsold fruits of a stall beside mine were usually good ones while those of mine were all rotten and bruised ones. Seeing this case, I watched her behavior curiously. I saw that she would put before her bags of fruits packed in advance. When the customers came to buy fruits, she put the packed fruit together with the fruits that the customers picked, and then she exchanged the two bags secretly when the customers were not watching. In this case, the customers would be in the dark about it and just think that the fruits were picked by themselves. As a result, the defective ones or rotten ones were all exchanged and taken away. After the customers left, she would pour out the fruits that the customers picked and pile them up on her stall again. Seeing this, I knew how it was. I said to her, “Your method is really good.” She smiled and said, “If I didn’t do this, those rotten and defective ones would be thrown away, for no one would buy them. But, you know, it cost our money to buy them. I could do nothing about it. Only by doing this can I earn some more money. What’s more, it doesn’t break the law. So, even though the customers find this, they will think that these bad ones are picked by themselves. Nevertheless, don’t put too many bad ones in each bag, or the customers will discover them.” Hearing this, I thought her words made sense and this way was good. But I then thought: It’s hot these days and I myself even don’t eat those rotten fruit. If I sell them to others, I’m indeed uneasy in my conscience and feel it’s too wicked. But then I had a second thought: If I don’t do like this, it is difficult to sell the bad fruits; thus I couldn’t make much money. To make money and support my family, I had no other ways. Besides, everyone in our trade was like this. It wasn’t just me who did this. In order to make more money, I finally decided to do as that woman said.
When I first wanted to do like this, I didn’t dare to exchange bags, afraid that the customers would discover. But seeing they just picked good ones, I was anxious in my heart: No! I must exchange bags secretly, or there will be only bad ones left which could hardly sell out. And so I started doing that boldly; really, I made it. After I exchanged one bag after another, the customers were unaware of this. In the end, I sold out of all the fruits in my stall early. When I counted the money I earned at night, I found I earned much more money than before. I couldn’t help but feel secretly pleased. However, when I was happy, I always felt I did something shameful and I was uneasy in my conscience. But, thinking that this time I indeed earned more money than before, I comforted myself: Nowadays, everyone in our fruit trade does like this, and it’s not just me to do so. Also, it’s difficult to earn money now and I have to do like this.
After Believing in God, I Know That Satan Uses Social Trends to Lure Man Into a Nest of Devils
Afterward, I accepted God’s work of the last days. One day, I saw God’s words saying: “For example, people in the past ran their business in a way that cheated neither old nor young, and which sold items at the same price regardless of who was buying. Is a hint of conscience and humanity not conveyed here? When people used this kind of credo when conducting their business, can we say that they still had some conscience, some humanity at that time? (Yes.) But with man’s demand for ever increasing amounts of money, people unknowingly came to love money, love gain and love enjoyment more and more. So did people come to view money as more important? When people view money as more important, they unknowingly neglect their reputation, their renown, prestige, and integrity; they neglect all these things, don’t they? … He approves of his cheating behavior and accepts it. In unawareness, he takes cheating to be a legitimate commercial behavior, and takes cheating to be the most useful means for his survival and his life; he thinks that by doing this he can get rich quick” “Satan uses these social trends to lure people one step at a time into a nest of devils, so that people caught up in social trends unknowingly advocate money and material desires, as well as advocate wickedness and violence. Once these things have entered man’s heart, what then does man become? Man becomes the devil Satan! … Every single person wants to use cheating means and violent methods to live in amongst their fellow man; they lie, cheat and become violent in order to seize their own livelihood; they win their positions and obtain their own profits using violence and they do anything they want using violent and evil ways. Is this humanity not terrifying? (Yes.)” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
Having seen God’s words, I was convinced. I thought: Am I not the person who God reveals? When I sold fruits at first, I could keep the way of cheating neither young nor old and selling everything at a fixed price according to my conscience. However, afterward, to earn more money, I changed the sliding weight to give short weight to customers. I even sold defective fruits to them through swapping bags secretly, never considering their interests. I thought: As long as I can sell out of the fruits and earn more money, it’s okay. Driven by money and interests, I gradually became a person who had no conscience or humanity, even less any moral baseline. I also approved of such behavior, thinking that as long as I could earn money, conscience and dignity were not important.
I finally realized that the reason why I did like this is that I, being caught up in social trends, was unknowingly infected and assimilated by these rules for survival from Satan, “Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing,” “Money is first,” “Money makes the world go round,” “Doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice,” “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.” After accepting these thoughts, I slowly became the same as Satan, without conscience or dignity. I unscrupulously cheated others in business. To make more money, I became a person who sought nothing but wealth and was crooked and crafty without any humanity. I lived in this corrupt disposition every day and what I thought all day was cheating others; am I not Satan’s offspring? At the beginning, Satan used lies to cheat Adam and Eve, and I played tricks to cheat customers too. If I continued on like this, wouldn’t my outcome be the same as Satan’s? In the end, I can only be detested and perished by God.
Understanding God’s Will and Pursuing to Be an Honest Person
When I wanted to change my wrong ways of survival, I found a path of practice in God’s words: “Honesty means to give your heart to God; never to play Him false in anything; to be open with Him in all things, never hiding the truth; never to do that which deceives those above and deludes those below; and never to do that which merely ingratiates yourself with God. In short, to be honest is to refrain from impurity in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (“Three Admonitions”). I saw that only the path that God leads man to walk on is the right way. God asks us to be honest persons who do not deceive our superiors while defrauding our subordinates. However, Satan lets us cheat and harm people with lies. I saw that the essence of Satan is evil, and the road which it makes us walk is wicked and dark. So I made up my mind: I shall follow God to walk the right path of life in future. I must practice being an honest person.
Falling Into Temptation and Losing My Witnessing
When I made a resolution to be an honest person, Satan was unwilling to let me do this. It tempted me in everything. Once, I sold some grapes, each of which was very big. At that time, the grapes sold at 14 yuan per 1kg, thus each grape could sell for 0.3-0.4 yuan. When I saw many grapes dropped from the branches and they were big, my selfish nature of Satan was stirred up, wanting to use the scheme to sell them out. I thought: If I don’t do this, these grapes will be thrown away and I will earn less over 20 yuan. What a pity! But when I wanted to do like this, I was condemned in my conscience. After a struggle, I was still unable to resist the temptation from Satan and stealthily sold the customers bad grapes. Although I made it and earned more money, my conscience suffered blame. I thought that these grapes were broken open and it was a hot day, so after the customers bought them they had to throw them away. Didn’t I still cheat the customers?
Repenting Before God to Be an Honest Person and Tasting Sweetness
At this time, I thought of God’s words: “Never hiding the truth; never to do that which deceives those above and deludes those below;” God asks us to be honest persons, not to cheat, delude nor harm others. I can’t earn the money that I shouldn’t earn. God is observing and looking at my thoughts and ideas, and my deeds and behaviors, so I must do things before God. Thinking of this, I prayed to God: “God! I’m willing to be an honest person according to Your words. But facing temptation of money, I felt it’s difficult for me to practice the truth. May You lead me to practice according to the truth.” After my prayer, I felt I had strength and confidence to practice the truth, and I made up my mind to practice according to God’s words in future.
One time, I brought in some bananas and grapes, among which there was a bunch of bananas with some blemishes, and there were also some bunches of bad grapes. I consciously betrayed my flesh to practice being an honest person. I sold them according to their kinds: The good ones were sold at high price and the bad ones were low. As for the bad ones that couldn’t be eaten, I threw them away. And I also weighed fruits with a standard sliding weight. When I practiced like this, I had thought I must earn less money, but unexpectedly, after a fair I earned twice as much as I had earned the most before. It surpassed all my thoughts. I thanked God in my heart ceaselessly. I felt that when I practiced according to God’s words, not only did my heart become peaceful and steady without accusations, but I saw God’s blessing that I didn’t lack any material things. That made me taste the sweetness of practicing the truth. I’m more willing to practice according to the truth.
Conclusion
Thank God for His salvation, which allowed me to learn to know truth from fallacy, light from darkness, positive things from negative things through God’s words. I saw that God’s guiding us to be honest persons is a true right path of life, and that God’s essence is beauty and goodness while fraud and swindling that Satan lures man to do is evil and dark. From then on, I’m even more willing to practice according to God’s words, walking the true path of life. Thank God! All the glory be to God!
