At the edge of the town of Radin stood a small store, regularly filled with customers. The reason for its popularity was not merely the products it offered, but the reputation of its owners: Rabbi Yisrael Meir of Radin, renowned as the “Chafetz Chaim,” and his wife. Both Jews and Gentiles preferred shopping there, confident they would be treated with honesty and fairness. The Chofetz Chaim's reputation for integrity was so widespread that no one doubted the fairness of their transactions. Additionally, many considered it an honor to support such a distinguished Torah scholar through their purchases.
The store sold many items by weight, using a traditional balance scale with two arms—one for the merchandise, the other for standardized weights. Every morning, the Chofetz Chaim would carefully check each weight to ensure its accuracy. If he found a weight that had worn down and was no longer correct, he would immediately discard it and replace it with a new one. He was concerned that using a deficient weight, even unintentionally, would mean taking money unjustly from a customer, as the customer would receive less product than paid for.
One day, the Chofetz Chaim entered the store at midday. The shop was, as usual, busy with customers, and his wife was serving them. As he looked around, he noticed a small quantity of salt remaining in the balance of the scale. It was clear to him that a customer had purchased salt, but some had accidentally been left behind on the scale during the transaction. Deeply troubled, the Chofetz Chaim declared, “What have we done? Our customer paid for a full kilo of salt but did not receive all the salt that he was entitled to! We have stolen from one of our customers!” He carefully measured the leftover salt and, although it was only worth a few pennies, was determined to return it. The challenge now was to identify the customer.
The Chofetz Chaim and his wife proceeded to investigate the situation and after considerable effort, including consulting with other patrons present at the time, the Chofetz Chaim’s wife recalled that a Gentile woman from a nearby village had recently bought salt. Further inquiry revealed that she was from Kujnitza, approximately forty kilometers from Radin, and had visited Radin to participate in the weekly regional market.
Without delay, the Chofetz Chaim hired two messengers and sent them to the market, hoping to find the woman. They asked merchants and villagers alike but found no one who could identify her.
With no other options, the Chafetz Chaim himself loaded a sack of salt onto a wagon and traveled to Kujnitza. After hours of travel, he arrived and began inquiring among the villagers about the woman who had bought salt from his store the previous day. Unable to identify her, he measured out small packages of salt, each equal to the amount that the woman left behind on the scale, and distributed the packages free of charge to every family in the village. By the end of the day, the sack of salt was empty, and the Chofetz Chaim was satisfied that the customer who had been shortchanged the day before had been repaid, even if he could not be certain exactly who it was.
