Amazing Story About A Toilet Paper Manufacturer

1:16It's not enough to give it back. So, what do you do? You put it in an envelope, and you set up a payment plan if you don't have all the money. Let's say you stole $5,000 and you don't have $5,000. So, what do you do? You make payments; you put a blank check or just cash in an envelope and drop it off or send it off. Or, if you don't know where they are, and this person is no longer here with us, you take that money and you give it to tzedakah (charity). You give it in tzedakah and you'll see many blessings in your life. Famous story that happened in New York some time ago, back in the early 1990s. I think it was '91. Breaking news report on the news. They were interviewing a Jewish guy who owned a small toilet paper company. He didn't know that the interview was coming, but they interviewed him and highlighted his business, saying, "Wow, you have such an amazing business. What's so amazing?" When you find out the details behind the scenes, he told the story himself to Jews, not to the news. He says, one time I came to a lecture just like this, and the rabbi said (it wasn't me, I wasn't a rabbi yet), that anyone who has blood on their hands cannot enter Gan Eden. Anyone who has blood on their hands cannot enter Gan Eden.

2:32So everybody was relieved. Oh, I'm not a murderer, Baruch Hashem. But another rabbi continued, blood is damim. But there's also damim, which in Hebrew means money. But the meme also means money in the Torah. Meaning anyone who stole money cannot enter Gan Eden. Even if they keep Shabbat, even if they give tzedakah, even if they learn Torah all day and all night, all that stuff is good. If they stole money and they didn't do teshuvah, they cannot enter Gan Eden. So one of the guys got nervous. Why? He's been stealing for a few years. From whom? From his customers. Which today is apparently acceptable. even among Jews. People think that if you don't steal, you can't make it in life. It's the opposite, by the way. If you steal, you're not going to make it in life—not in this life and not in eternal life. But anyway, he says to the Rabbi after the lecture, he was embarrassed. He says, what am I going to do? The Rabbi asks, what happened? He says, I'm in the toilet paper business, and it's industry norm that every roll of paper is 100 yards. But none of the customers actually count if the roll of paper is 100 yards. So, you know, we all cheat a little bit.

3:43You know, you sell 100, but it's actually 99. You sell it as 100, you price as 100, but it's only 99 yards. And then I figured, let me try to cut it a little bit longer, maybe 95. I said, nobody pays attention. I went to 90. Nobody pays attention. I went to 80. Nobody pays attention. I started feeling bad. I said, I'll make a deal with my yetzer hara. What? 85. I sold it as 100, full price, but in reality, I gave them 85 yards. For years, I've been doing this, Rav. For ten years, I've been selling them 85 yards. That means every roll of paper, I'm stealing 15. How do I do teshuva for such an act? I want to go to Gan Eden. I keep Shabbat now. I have tzitzit and everything. How do I go to Gan Eden now? The Rabbi was wise. He says, if you tell them... and the man interrupts, "Hey, Rabbi, I thought you were smart. What do you mean if I tell them? If I tell them right now, they're all going to sue me. I'll end up in jail and in lawsuits for the rest of my life and I'll never be able to pay them back anyway." Oh, the Rabbi said, I know. That's what I was saying to you. If you tell them, nothing good is going to come out of it. He goes, exactly. Oh, now you're a good Rabbi. So I don't have to tell them. He goes, no. You have to do something. What do you have to do? He says, let me ask you about this toilet paper business. Is there a lot of profit margin in it? He goes, yeah, there's a lot. He goes, if you...

5:00Seldom do you give them just a hundred, but really you give them extra; you give them a hundred and fifteen. Instead of a hundred, you give them a hundred and fifteen. Can you still make money? Can you still make a living? The answer is yes to both. We make plenty of money on the paper. Okay, that's what you do. That's what you do from now on. Give them a hundred and fifteen, meaning give them extra. They're paying for a hundred, and you were taking fifteen. So now, with every roll of paper, you're making up for the stolen money, and this is a step towards doing teshuva. As stated earlier, Hashem loves those who return to the right path and will often show them miracles as they pass their tests, especially tests related to financial matters. them knowing, and little by little, Hashem will see that you're trying your best. That's what the guy did, and he did it for one month and two months, and the profit margins went down. But nonetheless, he's still making a living. If somebody wants to go to Gan Eden, they'll do whatever they need to do. As you would have it, HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves people that do teshuva. He loves them so much that He shows them open miracles even in this world after they pass some tests, especially when it comes to the test of money. Because as HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe Rabbeinu, who said to us in the Torah and Sefer Devarim, the last generation is going to serve the god of wood, the god of stone, but also the god of silver and gold. What are they going to be? The four different types. The four different types of avodah zarah.

6:14Before Mashiach comes, you're going to have Christianity, you're going to have Islam, you're going to have money, and you're going to have kavod. People that do mitzvot for kavod. They want respect. They want to donate only if you put their name on the website. They want to donate only if you put their name on the building. "Nah, if you're not going to report it, then I'm not going to donate." "Yeah, but you know, people need to do, you need to feed people." "Okay, so feed them with a plaque on, you know, give them a card that says, 'I gave them the money.'" Sometimes people do mitzvot like this. The Chofetz Chaim says they'll cry when they get to heaven when they get the Shema and they'll cry because all of this, how all the reward they got will be spent already in this world because of all the honor they got. says they'll cry when they get to Heaven, when they get the Shema, and they'll cry because all of this, how all the reward they got will be spent already in this world because of all the honor they got, and Anyway, this guy passed the test. He started giving his customers extra, extra, extra! One month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months. On the sixth month, one day, there's a knock on his door. "Sir, there are TV stations outside the office." TV? What happened? He doesn't know what's going on. Maybe they caught him, maybe they discovered what he did in the past for so many years. He doesn't want to deal with it, but he can't hide.

7:18So you go to that site, sir, what do you have to say for yourself? We just conducted an industry research on the toilet paper business, and all of the competitors are advertising 100 yards per roll, but we did an investigation. The average is selling 72 yards. 72, 76, 78, 87, 89 - no one is selling even a hundred, even though they market it, except you, sir. You give your customers even extra; you give them 115 on average. What do you have to say about it? The poor guy, he's not going to tell them, "I've been stealing from my customers and I listened to my rabbi, and I'm doing teshuva now." He's going to say, "Well, you know, I love my customers. I love my customers." Where he says, guess what? His business boomed. Why? All the customers saw this TV, you know, special. They said, wow, I'm going to buy from this guy, I'm going to buy from that guy. This guy's giving me at least good toilet paper. They started buying from him and HaKadosh Baruch Hu already gave him a reward in this world. Why? He did teshuva. Teshuva that's difficult to do. It's not easy to do teshuva. It's not easy to do teshuva for money. But nonetheless, he did it, and he got rewarded for it. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, if you do teshuva, you'll get rewarded measure for measure in this world and the next.