Neither a borrower or lender be

Shakespeare once said “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” 

We all know that whether it is a much-loved book or a kitchen container or a handy mechanical tool, once loaned, doesn’t always come back. Worse is when no action is forthcoming even after reminders. If this is the case with objects what happens to money you wonder! If you loan it or are duped by a finance company or are battling with a doctor who billed you for a package you couldn’t go through with, due to adverse reactions   and are refused partial refund, or a legal professional has you in a bind by charging you extra under the guise of a refundable /security deposit which you were led to believe was payable to the court -- the agony cannot be explained. Why is it that people haven’t learned to return things that do not belong to them or that were placed in their hands in good faith? 

Is it because the lender feels delicate to ask for them back or is it sheer callousness on the part of the borrower with little respect for what he has received for a temporary period? Or is it a sense of entitlement? Don’t such people ever experience guilt?

I am sure they do but being habitual offenders, they put it out of their minds with practiced ease. Will they default on credit card payments or EMIs? I guess not for the fear of the knock on the door after a flood of reminder calls, emails, and messages.

 Very often after fighting and ranting,  the lender   eventually writes off the debt to preserve his/her own sanity. Or marks it under the lesson learned category and remembers to exercise utmost caution next time.

Do the scriptures look kindly on such defaulters?

Will karma do its job or is it due to a debt in a previous birth?

Default in payment by a debtor who is capable of paying is haram (prohibited)in the Islamic faith.

Another Hadith (a collection of traditions) says the soul of the defaulter is in suspension until the debt is settled. The wrong is not forgiven unless the lender himself condones it. And while the Psalm 37:21 states “The wicked borrow but do not pay back,” the quote from Hebrews 13.3 goes further, “If a man borrows anything of his neighbour and is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution.”

The ultimate sin is when people make a vow to the Supreme and forget to honour it.