Very often you come to hear: “a bargain is a bargain, business is business”. These are the words of a person who wants to deceive another person in order to gain profit. Actually, business means getting profit in the situation when another party is consciously willing to pay for a certain product fully realizing what it is paying for. Getting profit by deceit is fraud. There is nothing you can cover it with. It is a lie followed by a curse even if unperceived, in the form of anger, pain or confusion.

I have an acquaintance of mine who, in his opinion, had a successful business. He engaged in construction of saunas and cottages. Once I watched his workers laying the foundation and he was present. They were throwing rags into concrete, thus creating hollows in the foundation. After some time the foundation and the walls of the building cracked. I asked him why he was doing that. He replied that the owner would never know. Now Alexey cannot speak. He has laryngeal cancer. He has undergone several operations. His business collapsed and he lost his family.

Lie seems to be smooth and honeyed at first sight, but it is all cankery and scaly inside. One man has been lying to me for about four months. At the same time he is trying to persuade me that he wants the best for me. He takes money for his services, sets the dates which are constantly being postponed for different reasons. But when I ask him to give me what I have paid for he swears that it is not his fault, that he has been promised we’ll get all we want after some more time. He repeats in all sharps and flats: “I swear! I promise! That’s certain!”. The money is spent on some other things and it turns out that we cannot get our order because it hasn’t been paid for or there comes up some other explanation. This man constantly demonstrates his preoccupation and importance when he doesn’t want to talk to you on the phone. But if he needs you he can call you from any meeting or conference no matter where he is.

He swears: “I swear!”. A person doesn’t even realize or, perhaps, doesn’t want to understand that “swear” means putting everything he has in pledge: his wife, his parents, and well-being. Everything is on pledge and this man may lose everything. His family members and dear ones may fall ill and die if the other side demands the payback for the oath.

This is life; this is the routine of our time. All or nothing. Life or death. Creation or destruction. It all lives inside us. It is all determined by us. It all depends on us. You just pull by the rope.