Rabbi Moshe N. of Antwerp used to keep up to date with auctions held from time to time by receivers and obtain "bargains." Once he heard that an auction was about to be held for items of a large frozen fish factory, which had gone bankrupt. At the time, Rabbi Moshe was looking for an office table and came to see if he could find anything suitable in the factory.
The order of things in such sales is that every item of the factory's contents is numbered, and the day before the sale, tours of all potential buyers are held in the factory premises, each of whom specifies the numbers he desires, and the next day a public tender is held in a large hall, with the participation of all the buyers. Rabbi Moshe toured the factory , came to the place that served as an office, saw that the table was good, and decided to buy it. The office was adjacent to a huge freezer hall, so the freezer hall was numbered 90, and the table next to it was numbered 91. Rabbi Moshe wrote down the number 91 with him, and knew that the next day, when they reached this number at the time of sale, he would raise his finger and announce the price he wanted to pay for the table.
The next day, one of our acquaintances arrived late for the auction, already in the middle of it, with his soul a little spread over him, when he entered, he asked a non-Jew who was standing at the entrance: Where are you holding? For some reason, he realized that he was asking what was the next item in line, and they answered 91. Moshe immediately raised his hand and said that he was interested in paying 1,000 Belgian francs (a value of about 100 shekels), to which the announcer was sure, Rabbi Moshe replied with certainty. No one added to the price, and so he won item 90. To the sound of thunderous applause from the hundreds present in the hall. While he was glad that he had been able to buy a table for only a thousand francs, the applause aroused his suspicion, after all, a desk... Soon his suspicions were adjusted... He hears that everyone congratulates him on winning the... The huge freeze hall. Indeed, a thousand francs for a freezer hall is nothing compared to the enormous value of the hall, it is a huge hall of about 2000 square meters!, but what does he have to do with this trouble? What will he do with a refrigeration hall? According to Belgian law, anyone who buys an item at an auction is obligated to remove it within 48 hours. There is no possibility of regrets! Insiders had already told him that it would cost him about 200,000 or 300,000 francs to evacuate the hall ! What should be done? Rabbi Moshe buried his head between the palms of his hands, as if to say, "When I am lost, I am lost," without knowing where he would get a huge sum of money and what he would do with it after the hall was dismantled and evacuated, for it was almost impossible to find buyers for such a freeze hall. Next to him sits his friend, who comes with him and whispers to him several times: Rabbi Moshe's rope, Rabbi Moshe's rope, needs to be more balanced and moderate. Rabbi Moshe bowed his head on the table in a posture of mourning and despair. He came to save a few pennies and was about to lose a real amount, not to mention that he caused himself by his negligence.
The sale was over, the attendees began to disperse, and a huge goy, wet from head to toe, rushed into the entire panting complex. He was very sorry to hear that the sale was over and asked who had won the cold room. He drove 5 hours specifically from Holland, for this sale, to buy the hall. The people present point to Rabbi Moshe, and the non-Jew approaches him and makes a suggestion: "Will you agree to sell me the hall? Why do you need it?! With the help of Heaven, Rabbi Moshe said to him, "I will sell you the hall for a million francs..." The non-
