By Wang Ying
I have yearned for the life of the rich since I was a child, but was never able to fulfill my wish. After getting married, every time I saw others wearing nice things or living in good houses, I would admire and be jealous of them. I also wanted to enjoy an extravagant life, just like them. In order to realize my desire, I tried every means to make money. Seeing my neighbor made good money selling fruits, and it didn’t require much capital, I also started a business selling fruits.
Despite Large Sales Volumes, I Only Had a Small Income From Selling Fruits
When I began to sell fruits at first, my business principles were: “Neither young nor old get cheated and everything is fixed price,” “Small profit, large sales volumes.” So when I sold fruits, I never gave less to my customers, nor did I mind them tasting some fruits before buying or even taking one extra. They all said that I was easy-going. And I thought that since so many people came to buy my fruit, I would certainly earn more money. However, when I calculated my earnings after a period of time, I found that I was only earning just over twenty yuan a day.
Earning More Money by Changing the Scales
One time, I told one of my neighbors, who is in the same business, about the way I ran my stall. She said in surprise, “Why do you do it like that? You can’t give your customers the right quantity, or you won’t earn enough money. After all, they eat the fruits right after buying them and never weigh them again. So they won’t know if the fruit is short weight. And if you sell them at too low a price how will you earn money?” I felt what she said was reasonable. So I took her advice and changed my scales, from one with a 0.5kg sliding weight to one with a 0.45kg sliding weight.
At first, when the customers bought small quantities the short weight was not obvious. But when they bought 4 or 4.5kg at a time, I would give them 0.4kg or 0.45kg less, which made me feel uneasy in my conscience. Every time I encountered this guilt, I would give them 0.25kg extra, or intentionally tell them that I’d given them 0.15kg or 0.2kg more; the customers were always happy to hear this. This way, I felt a bit steadier in my heart. But after the first market day doing this, I still didn’t have much money. I saw other fruit-sellers all used scales with a 0.45kg sliding weight, and some of the sliding weights they used were even less than 0.45kg. They had sold fruits for so many years, and no one came to find fault with them. It seemed that this method was feasible, so I also became bold.
One time, I hurried to the market to set up. There were many people that day coming to buy things to take to visit their relatives, and none of them checked the weight of what they bought. So I used the scales with a 0.45kg sliding weight. When I sold out of fruits and calculated how much I’d earned, I found I’d earned over 90 yuan that day, which was several times more than before. I was very happy, and thought: “It seems that I’ll have to use these scales in future.” Although I knew that what I was ripping people off, yet if I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t earn enough money. And when I saw other fruit-sellers even using scales with a 0.4kg sliding weight to weigh fruits for those who were buying them to visit relatives, who bought fruit for their children waiting there to eat them, who were young lovers, etc., I felt somewhat less fearful. As time passed and no one returned to find fault with me, I became bolder and bolder and the voice of my conscience slowly disappeared.
Secretly Swapping Fruits to Sell the Defective Ones
Once, I noticed that the unsold fruits on a stall beside mine were usually good ones, while those on mine were all rotten and bruised. So I watched the stall owner’s behavior with interest. I saw that she would put bags of fruits packed in advance out of view. When a customer came to buy fruits, she put a bag of pre-packed fruit next to the bag of fruits that the customers picked, and then she exchanged the two bags quickly when the customers were not watching. This way, the customers would be in the dark about it and would think that the fruits were picked by themselves. As a result, the defective ones or rotten ones were sneakily sold off. After the customers left, she would take out the fruits that the customers picked and pile them up on her stall again. Seeing this, I knew I’d uncovered a trade secret. 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 have to be thrown away, because no one would buy them. But, you know, it costs money to buy them. There’s no other way. Only by doing this can I earn enough money. What’s more, it’s not breaking the law. And even if the customers find out, they will think that the bad ones were picked by themselves. Nevertheless, don’t put too many bad ones in each bag or the customers will know what you’ve done.” Hearing this, I thought what she said made sense and was a clever method. But I then thought: “It’s hot these days and even I myself don’t eat the rotten fruits. If I sell them to others, I’ll definitely have an uneasy conscience and feel I’ve been too wicked.” But then I had a second thought: “If I don’t do this, it will be difficult to sell the bad fruits and I won’t make much money. To make money and support my family, I have no other way. Besides, everyone in our trade does this. It’s not just me who will be doing this.” So in order to make more money, I finally decided to do as that woman said.
When I first wanted to do it, I didn’t dare to exchange bags, afraid that the customers would discover me. But seeing they all just picked good fruits, I got anxious: “No! I must exchange bags secretly, or there will be only bad ones left which won’t sell” I thought. And so I plucked up the courage and started doing it. I exchanged one bag after another, and the customers were all unaware of it. In the end, I sold out of all the fruits on my stall early. When I counted the money I earned that night, I found I’d earned much more money than usual. I couldn’t help but feel secretly pleased. However, although I was happy, I still felt I’d done something shameful and I had an uneasy conscience. But, thinking that this time I had earned more money than before, I comforted myself by thinking: “Nowadays, everyone in the fruit trade does this; it’s not just me. Also, it’s difficult to earn money now, so I have to do this.”
After Believing in God, I Learned That Satan Uses Social Trends to Lure People Into Its 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 so that nobody was cheated; they sold items at the same price regardless of who was buying. Is not some element of good conscience and humanity conveyed here? When people conducted their business like this, in good faith, it can be seen that they still had some conscience and some humanity at that time. But with man’s ever-increasing demand for money, people unknowingly came to love money, gain, and pleasure more and more. In short, people came to view money as more important than before. When people view money as more important, they unknowingly begin to attach less importance to their reputation, their renown, their good name and their integrity, do they not?” “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, wickedness and violence. Once these things have entered the heart of man, what then does man become? Man becomes the devil, Satan! … Each and every person seeks to use violent methods to live among their fellow man; they seize their daily bread using violence; they win their positions and obtain their profits using violence, and they use violent and evil ways to do anything they want. Is this humanity not horrifying? (Yes.)” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
After reading God’s words, I was convinced. I thought: “Am I not one of the people who God is revealing? When I sold fruits at first, I could keep to my principles of ‘Neither young nor old get cheated and everything is fixed price’ and satisfy my conscience. However, to earn more money, I later changed the sliding weight on my scales to give short weight to my customers. I even sold defective fruits to them through swapping bags secretly, never considering how they would feel. I thought as long as I could sell all of the fruits and earn more money, it would be okay. Driven by money and self-interest, 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 this is that I was caught up in social trends. I was unknowingly infected 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.” and had started to live by them. After accepting these maxims, I slowly became the same as Satan: a being who has no conscience or dignity. I unscrupulously cheated others when doing business. To make more money, I became a person who sought nothing but wealth, became crooked and crafty, and lost all of my humanity. I lived in this corrupt disposition every day and what I thought about all day was how to cheat others. Wasn’t I Satan’s offspring? In the beginning, Satan used lies to cheat Adam and Eve, and I played tricks to cheat customers too. If I continued like this, wouldn’t my outcome be the same as Satan’s? In the end, I would certainly be detested and destroyed by God.
Understanding God’s Will and Pursuing Being an Honest Person
When I wanted to change my wrong ways of living, I found a path of practice in God’s words: “Honesty means giving your heart to God, being genuine with God in all things, being open with Him in all things, never hiding the facts, not trying to deceive those above and below you, and not doing things only to curry favor with God. In short, to be honest is to be pure in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (“Three Admonitions”). I saw that only the path that God leads mankind to walk on is the right way. God asks us to be honest people who do not “deceive our superiors while defrauding our subordinates,” as the saying goes. However, Satan makes us cheat and harm people with its 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 and I will practice being an honest person.
Falling Into Temptation and Losing My Witnessing
But when I made a resolution to be an honest person, Satan was unwilling to let me do it. It tempted me in everything. Once, I sold some grapes, each of which was very big. At that time, grapes sold at 14 yuan per 1kg, thus each grape could be sold for 0.3-0.4 yuan. When I saw many big grapes had dropped from the bunches and were going off, my selfish, satanic nature was stirred up, and I wanted to do the same bag swapping trick to sell them. I thought: “If I don’t do something, these grapes will be thrown away and I will earn over 20 yuan less. What a pity!” But when I wanted to do this, my conscience was agitated. After a struggle, I was still unable to resist the temptation from Satan and stealthily sold the customers the bad grapes. Although I wasn’t discovered and earned more money, my conscience made me feel guilty. I thought how those grapes were split open and it was a hot day, so after the customers bought them they would have to throw them away. Wasn’t this still cheating the customers?
Tasting the Sweetness of Repenting Before God and Becoming an Honest Person
At this time, I thought of God’s words: “never hiding the facts, not trying to deceive those above and below you;” God asks us to be honest people who do not cheat, delude nor harm others. He says I shouldn’t take money that isn’t coming to me. God is observing and looking at my thoughts and ideas, and my deeds and behaviors, so I must do everything in front of God. Thinking of this, I prayed to God: “God! I’m willing to be an honest person according to Your words. But facing the temptation of money, I feel 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 the 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 was able to consciously betray my flesh to practice being an honest person. I sold them accordingly: The good ones were sold at a high price and the bad ones at a low price. 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 thought I would earn less money, but unexpectedly, on that market day I earned twice as much as I had earned the most before. This surpassed all my expectations. 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 remorse, but I saw it was God’s blessing that I still didn’t lack any material things. That made me taste the sweetness of practicing the truth. I’m now more willing to practice according to the truth.
Conclusion
Thank God for His salvation, which allowed me to learn to know the truth from fallacy, light from darkness, and positive things from negative things through His words. I saw that God’s guiding us to be honest people is a true and right path of life, and that God’s essence is beauty and goodness while the fraud and swindling that Satan lures mankind to do is evil and dark. From now on, I’m even more willing to practice according to God’s words, and walk the true path of life. Thank God! All the glory be to God!
