story of the week (By Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
****** The ingenuity of a worker saved his job*****
In the town of Pshemishl, Poland there lived a Yid who owned a large mill. He had a lot of Yiddish workers. It happened that the owner caught one of his workers stealing some flour and taking it home. He immediately fired the worker. The worker had to take care of small children, and needed the job to support them. The worker was at a loss at what to do. So he ran to the community leader of Pshemishl, Reb Shmuel, and begged him to speak to the miller and try and get him his job back.
“How can you ask this of me?” the miller asked Reb Shmuel when he asked him to take the worker back. “You expect me to keep a thief in my mill?” “Sit down,” said Reb Shmuel to the miller. “Let me tell you a story. “In the city of Brod, where the Gaon Reb Efrayim Zalman Margolies, was the Rav, a Yid had a large, reputable store. He had an assistant that helped him run the store.
“One day the assistant saw an item he felt he had to have. He couldn’t control himself, and he stole it, and the boss fired him for it. “Prestigious people of the town begged the boss to have mercy on his assistant. They begged the boss to take him back and reinstate him in his job, and they guaranteed that he would never steal again. After all, a person is only human, sometimes he fails. Hashem often forgives people. The boss gave in to them and reinstated him in his job. “Some time passed, and the assistant once again felt the urge for something he wanted. He came up with excuses, to steal it from the store. And once again, the boss caught him at it. This time he dismissed him forever. No excuses, or explanations, or pleas would work. The assistant was once more without a livelihood, and without bread for his children.
He was an intelligent man, and came up with an idea. He went to the gaon Reb Efrayim Zalman, and told him, “My boss, needs you.” “The Rav wondered Why would this rich man send for him? If he needed him, he would normally have come to him. But he was not concerned with his own honor, and with his own assistant went to the rich man’s house.
“When the rich man saw the Rav come to his house he sprang up with joy and and welcomed him. He took the Rav in and honored him in the nicest way possible. They sat down at the table across from each other. “The rich man waited to hear what important matter brought the Rav to his house. The Rav, meanwhile, sat and waited to hear on what important matter the rich man had called for him to come to his house. Neither one had a glimmer of what brought the two of them together!
“Finally, the rich man asked the Rav, “Few people have been found worthy of receiving such an honor. I would like to know what important cause brought the Rav here?” “What do you mean?’ asked the Rav. He was bewildered. ‘Your assistant came and invited me in your name to visit your house. Even though I was surprised, I nevertheless answered your invitation and came to you. And now you ask me why I came to you?’
‘What?’ shouted the rich man. ‘Who could it be? What assistant had the nerve to come up with such a lie?’ “After a short investigation he realized that they were talking about the assistant he had fired. The rich man’s anger boiled over, and immediately had someone call the man to his house. As soon as he arrived, the rich man, in front of the Rav, began to condemn the former assistant, yelling at him ‘Liar! I sent you to call the Rav?!’
“The assistant, answered, ‘Calm down. I did not lie, and I never called the Rav to your home. My words to the Rav were: “My boss needs you.” What I meant was that if my boss is looking for such an honest worker who does only good, and never touches anyone else’s money, he won’t find an assistant like that unless he takes a Rav, who is above such things. A honest worker is one of the great qualities praised by Dovid Hamelech. That’s the kind of person he needs to have. But besides the Rav, he won’t find anyone better than me.’
“The Rav smiled at the assistant’s ingenuity, since he had no other choice. He was in severe danger, having lost his means of supporting his family. The Rav asked the boss to give the assistant back his job. “He then turned to the assistant and said, ‘I demand from you, however, that from now on you you act with all the possible honesty at work. I want people to be able to say about you that you represent the quality praised by Dovid Hamelech. The man repented, and never stole anything again.
“Let’s apply the same to you,” finished Reb Shmuel, the community leader of Pshemishl. “To find a honest worker is not easy. So let’s make the same agreement with your worker, and let him keep his job.” The boss agreed, and allowed the Yid to return to work, and became one of the most honest and loyal workers of the miller of Pshemishl.
