This is not meant to rule practical halachah; rather it’s to show the sweetness of learning.
Based on Rav Yitzchok Silberstein’s seforim
Who Makes Torah Learning So Sweet and Geshmak…
Yossi was the boss of a small company, and had one worker who was very talented. This worker knew the job perfectly and did it better than anyone else.
But there was one problem. Every day, he showed up ten minutes late and left twenty minutes early.
Yossi thought about firing him, but he knew it would be very hard to find someone as good as him. Yossi decided to forgive the few minutes he came late. He thought, “It is better to have him than to lose him.”
But the worker did not know he was being forgiven. Yossi could not tell him, because if he did, the worker might take advantage and start coming even later and leaving even earlier.
Yossi was confused since, technically, the worker was stealing time.
Should he tell the worker he is forgiven so the worker does not feel like he is stealing? Or should he stay quiet and keep forgiving him secretly so he does not leave even earlier?
Forgiving the worker does not really fix the problem.
Why?
Because Chazal say (Kiddushin 1b) that if someone plans to eat non-kosher meat, eats it, and later finds out it was really kosher meat because someone switched it, he is still guilty. He wanted and thought he was eating non-kosher, so he must do teshuvah for the sinful thought, even though he did not actually eat the non-kosher meat.
In our case too, the worker is technically not stealing from Yossi, since Yossi forgives him for coming late. But the worker does not know that, and is still guilty for coming late and for thinking he is stealing.
It seems Yossi may be doing a sin by not telling the worker.
What sin is that? Putting a stumbling block before someone.
This means a person may not cause others to sin or help them sin. Yossi might be causing the worker to think he is stealing. Since the worker still thinks he is taking money for coming late… Tosfos (Kiddushin 32a) even says one isn’t even allowed to cause others to even think of sinning.
So it would seem Yossi should tell the worker so that he shouldn’t think he is sinning.
But maybe this case is different.
The worker may not think he is sinning at all. Many people today feel they work very hard for the company and deserve a little more money for all they do. If so, the worker doesn’t even think he is doing something wrong by coming late, as he deserves more money for working so hard.
In short: In that case, Yossi may forgive him and does not need to tell the worker anything.
The Power Of Thinking.
