Have you noticed that the containers
that hold food in the grocery store have gotten smaller in recent years? It is
true. The size has gotten smaller, but the price has stayed the same or gone
up. You think that you are getting the same thing, but not really. It is not
that the manufacturer is lying to you, but they are just not telling you about
the shrinkage. They are of course allowed to do whatever they want with their
product. So it is OK for them to sell it is smaller packages.
I think the plates a buffet restaurants have
gotten smaller as well! I can’t confirm this, but it seems that way to me. But
this is not what Proverbs 11:1 is talking about. A quick cultural lesson.
In Biblical times, and still in many places
around the world today, scales were a simple device that product went on one
side and some weights went on the other. If you wanted a pound of something the
vendor would put the one pound weight on one side and then pile the stuff on
the other until it balanced. But who is to say that the seller’s one pound
weight actually weighs one pound?
Suppose it only weighed 15 ounces instead of
16. After 16 sales the seller would have saved 16 ounces, gaining a whole extra
pound to be sold for clear profit. This is an easy way to make a bit more
money. In most developed countries scales are “certified” to be accurate. They
had to do this because of the tendency to want to cheat others to make some
extra cash.
It comes down to integrity. We could cheat
in so many ways. If we are constructing a building, we could skimp
on the materials.
We could put less peanut butter on the sandwiches, or fewer cookies in the
lunch. Cheaper buttons on the clothes, fewer welds, thinner plastic, silver
plating. So many ways to cheat.
If we have integrity we will be honest about
what our customer is getting. And the customer should be honest in their
purchasing. You can’t get exactly the same quality for a drastically reduced
price. Something must be different. We must face the facts.
Our integrity should cover every aspect of
our lives, not just the purchasing of fruit by the pound. Integrity in all our
business dealings. Don’t let the drive for increasing the profit margin drive
you to duplicity. Kids spot this duplicity in an instant. They know when you
are the real deal.