By An Xin, China

In 2011, my husband and I were running a meat business in the market. We wanted to make money by running the business honestly. We conducted our business with integrity, we never engaged in deceit, and we had fixed prices for all customers. It didn’t matter how much we sold, as long as we felt at ease. When customers asked whether the goods were fresh or frozen, I’d tell them the truth, that it was frozen meat that had just thawed. As soon as customers heard that, they’d turn and leave. After a while, our business showed no improvement. Seeing our business faltering, my husband helplessly said, “If we don’t make any money by the end of the year, we should sell the shop.” Hearing my husband say that made me feel very upset. “We took out a loan of 200,000 yuan from the bank to run the business, and it needs to be repaid within three years. Add in the cost of things like the cold storage, stall fees, and fuel for the vehicle, and all these expenses add up to about 200 yuan a day. We’ve got young kids at home, and every little thing, from daily expenses to the children’s needs, requires money. What’ll we do if the business doesn’t work out?” Sometimes customers would ask about the products at our stall and then run over to one of our competitors to buy their goods. I couldn’t understand why, “The meat is thawed in both places, so why do they buy from our competitors?” To make money, my husband and I went to learn from our competitors. They said, “I tell my customers that our meat is fresh. Why would you tell the truth? You’re a fool if you do that. We’re in business to make money. That’s what it’s all about. Do you think people will praise you for being honest? What can you buy with compliments? Money in hand and food on the table—that’s what’s real.” After hearing this, I felt uncertain, “Is this really the right thing to do? What if the customers find out they’ve been cheated and come back to cause trouble?” But I saw our competitors’ goods were selling like hotcakes and that they were making more money, and their lives were thriving. While we were honest in doing business, we couldn’t sell anything and weren’t making any money. Moreover, we still had a lot of debt to pay off, so I felt we couldn’t afford to be so honest and rigid anymore, and that the most important thing was for us to find a way to make money and live well.

One day, as my husband and I were busy, an elegant woman in her forties with curly hair came up to the stall and asked, “How much are the ribs?” I said, “11 yuan for one pound.” The woman paused for a moment and said, “The quality of the ribs is good; can you make them a little cheaper? I’ll buy several hundred pounds at once, and if you agree, could you cut them into smaller pieces for me? If everything is suitable, I’ll buy from you in the future.” My husband quickly said, “Sure! If you buy more, I’ll give you a discount of one yuan per pound.” My husband’s words shocked me, because the profit margin on a pound of ribs was already very thin, and with a one-yuan discount, there was barely any profit left. The woman, a little concerned, said, “I want the quality of these ribs to be good. If they’re bad, I’ll return them.” My husband confidently assured her. After the customer left, I said to my husband unhappily, “With so little profit left, what does it matter how much we sell, we’ll barely make any money!” My husband chuckled and told me, “I know how we can make money. The other day, I saw one of our competitors cut ribs into small pieces, and then mix in ribs from old sows and pigs that had died, and once they’re mixed together, you can’t tell the difference. Think about it, why do they still have so many customers, even though their ribs are of poor quality? It’s because they’re cheap. How many customers actually care about quality nowadays? If you don’t give this lady a discount, she’ll just go to another vendor.” I was still worried, and said to my husband, “What if you process hundreds of pounds of ribs, and then she just returns them as soon as she sees they’re not good?” My husband confidently said, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll process some good ones and then mix in some cheap ones, and no one will notice.” After hearing my husband say this, I thought to myself, “We’ve never had such a big client, isn’t mixing in fake stuff just to make some money?” So, I agreed to my husband’s proposition. After the ribs were processed, the lady came to pick them up. My heart was in my throat, I watched her closely, and my palms were sweating. To my surprise, when the lady carefully inspected them, she didn’t find a single problem. From then on, the lady kept having us process ribs, we kept using the same method, and the money kept rolling in. I thought to myself, “No wonder people say, ‘No matter where you go, the buyers are never as sharp as the sellers.’ It takes a sharp mind to be in business, otherwise how could people make so much money!”

As the year-end approached, our stall was crowded with people coming to buy our goods. Pork trotters were in high demand around the New Year, but because the price of front trotters was too high, we had to pass off back trotters as front trotters. At first, customers asked me, “Are these front trotters ma’am?” I was really nervous when the customers asked this. If I said they were front trotters, I’d be lying to them, but if I told the truth, they wouldn’t buy from us. I didn’t have the courage to look the customers in the face, and I’d just respond, “They’re all front trotters, you can buy them with confidence.” After hearing me say that, customers would buy a few. Only after they’d left would I let out a long sigh of relief. But one time, a customer got suspicious and asked, “How do you have so many front trotters? I heard those were hard to come by.” My heart jumped, and I hurriedly explained, “There are more pigs slaughtered around the New Year, so there are more front trotters available.” The customer continued to ask, “They say front trotters have seven joints, but why don’t yours have them?” When he said that, my heart was caught in my throat, and I thought, “This person knows a lot about pig trotters, maybe I should just tell him that these are all back trotters. But if I tell the truth, wouldn’t I end up embarrassing myself?” To cover for my lie, I forced myself to say, “Nowadays, they use chainsaws to cut the trotters, and the joints get cut off during slaughter.” He actually believed me and bought some trotters. Although we were making money, it was clear to me in my heart that it was unconscionable to make money through lies, and I was afraid that if I kept blatantly deceiving customers, they might come back and cause trouble if they found out they were being cheated. But after a while, when no customers came back to cause trouble, I breathed a sigh of relief. I also thought about how it wasn’t just us doing this, and that our competitors were doing the same, and gradually, I became more and more at ease with lying.

In March 2013, I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. During a gathering, I saw brothers and sisters reflecting on themselves through the exposure of God’s words and fellowshipping the corruption they revealed. I thought to myself, “Why do they always expose their ugly side and tell everyone about the things they’re most ashamed about? Isn’t this foolish?” At that time, I didn’t understand what the brothers and sisters were doing. But after believing in God for a longer time, I finally understood that God’s work of the last days is to purify and change people through His words, and that only by casting off our corrupt dispositions can we be saved by God. Later, I read God’s words: “Honesty means giving your heart to God, being genuine with God in all things, being open with Him in all things, never hiding the facts, not trying to deceive those above and below you, and not doing things only to curry favor with God. In short, to be honest is to be pure in your actions and words, and to deceive neither God nor man” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Three Admonitions). After reading God’s words, I understood that God requires people to be honest, to be pure in their actions and words, without deception, and to be truthful. But in my heart God’s requirements clashed with my reality. I knew I should be an honest person, but I felt that if I didn’t deceive people in my business, then all my customers would run off. How would I make money then? I’d sold much less before because I’d told the truth, and if I continued as rigidly as I’d been before, our business would be sure to fail. I thought it would just be fine if I didn’t lie or deceive in gatherings or daily life. With this in mind, I acted accordingly.

Among the meat products we sold, beef shanks sold very well, but the cost of beef shank was very high, with a profit of only one or two yuan per pound. In comparison, the cost of sow shank was much lower. Because sows are raised for a longer time, in appearance, the sow shank, apart from the fact that it is smaller than beef shank, doesn’t differ much in other aspects. So some people in the market passed sow meat off as beef, and we did the same. Some restaurant buyers were puzzled and asked, “Why are you selling your beef so cheap?” When they asked this, I put on a calm face and told them, “This is meat from young calves. They were only raised for a short time and then slaughtered, so it’s cheaper.” The restaurant buyers would buy some, to varying extents, after hearing this. After I spoke, my heart was pounding, as I was scared that the buyers would ask something else that I couldn’t answer. If they found out I was cheating them and they reported me, I’d likely have my business license revoked. If I were penalized, all the money we’d earned would be lost, and I was uncertain whether I’d end up in jail. Some restaurants required receipts, so I’d just write “shank” on the receipt, not “beef shank” to get away with it. When the food safety authorities came to inspect the market, I’d pack up early to avoid inspection. After every lie I told, I felt uneasy, because I had heard that eating this kind of sow meat could be harmful to one’s health. I felt trapped in a dilemma, as I knew full well that lying was wrong, and that doing business this way was unconscionable, but we were making so much profit this way, and I didn’t want to give it up. I thought about how I used to consider price when buying things, but now I just bought whatever I needed. My parents had also benefited a lot from this, and my father-in-law happily said, “You two are doing so well, seems like you’re the real breadwinners of our family!” Hearing this, I couldn’t help but smile, and thought to myself, “Having money is great; if you want a fat wallet, you need a keen mind.” To keep earning money, I continued to cheat people. That was until something happened that finally made me change my ways.

One morning, one of our regular customers asked me with a stern expression, “The large intestine you gave me yesterday wasn’t fresh, was it?” My heart pounded. The large intestine I’d given him the day before had been left over from the day prior and definitely wasn’t fresh, but if I told the truth, he’d be furious. What if he never bought from us again? I quickly said, “It was fresh.” The customer didn’t say anything after hearing that and just turned and walked away. As I watched him leave, I felt guilty and sad. This customer had been buying from us for a long time, but I’d cheated him for profit. I was truly immoral! I was not honest, and he would probably never trust me again. Sure enough, the next day, this customer went to another shop to buy their goods. Seeing this happen, I was filled with regret, and I realized that this situation had been permitted by God. God scrutinizes the deepest recesses of people’s hearts. How could my thoughts, intentions, and every single action escape God’s gaze? So, I began to reflect on myself.

Later, I read a passage of God’s words: “People in the past ran their business so that nobody was cheated; they sold items at the same price regardless of who was buying. Is not some element of good conscience and humanity conveyed here? When people conducted their business like this, in good faith, it can be seen that they still had some conscience and some humanity at that time. But with man’s ever-increasing demand for money, people unknowingly came to love money, gain, and pleasure more and more. Do people not prioritize money more than they used to? When people view money as very important, they unknowingly begin to attach less importance to their reputation, their renown, their good name and their integrity, do they not? When you engage in business, you see others getting rich by cheating people. Although the money earned is ill-gotten, they become richer and richer. Seeing all that their family enjoys upsets you: ‘We’re both in business but they got rich. Why can’t I make a lot of money? I can’t take this—I must find a way to make more cash.’ After that, all you think about is how to make your fortune. Once you have given up on the belief that ‘money should be earned with conscience, by tricking no one,’ then, driven by your own interests, your way of thinking gradually changes, as do the principles behind your actions. When you cheat someone for the first time, you feel the reproach of your conscience, and your heart tells you, ‘Once this is done, this is the last time I will cheat someone. Always cheating people will result in retribution!’ This is the function of man’s conscience—to make you feel scruples and to reproach you, so that it feels unnatural when you cheat someone. But after you have successfully deceived someone, you see that you now have more money than you did before, and you think this method can be very beneficial for you. Despite the dull ache in your heart, you still feel like congratulating yourself on your success, and you feel somewhat pleased with yourself. For the first time, you approve of your own behavior, your own deceptive ways. Once man has been contaminated by this cheating, it is the same as someone who gets involved in gambling and then becomes a gambler. In your unawareness, you give approval to your own cheating behavior and accept it. In unawareness, you take cheating to be a legitimate commercial behavior and the most useful means for your survival and livelihood; you think that by doing this you can quickly make a fortune. This is a process: In the beginning, people cannot accept this type of behavior and they look down on this behavior and practice. Then they begin to experiment with this behavior themselves, trying it out in their own way, and their hearts begin to gradually transform. What kind of transformation is this? It is an approval and admission of this trend, of this idea instilled in you by the social trend. Without realizing it, if you do not cheat people when doing business with them, you feel you are worse off; if you do not cheat people, you feel as though you have lost something. Unknowingly, this cheating becomes your very soul, your backbone, and an indispensable type of behavior that is a principle in your life. After man has accepted this behavior and this thinking, has this not brought about a change in their heart? Your heart has changed, so has your integrity changed as well? Has your humanity changed? Has your conscience changed? Your whole being, from your heart to your thoughts, from inside to out, has changed, and this is a qualitative change. This change pulls you further and further away from God, and you become more and more closely aligned with Satan; you become more and more alike to Satan, with the result that Satan’s corruption makes you a demon” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique VI). God’s words are so true. In the past, people conducted business honestly and with no deceit, and prices were fixed. Nowadays, people have an increasing demand for money and profits to enjoy a better life, and they no longer care about integrity or reputation. Instead, people have become insatiably greedy and profit-driven, daring to do anything for money. To keep food fresh, people spray preservatives on bananas, they soak lychees in chemicals, and they spray or soak vegetables like celery, garlic shoots, yams, and mushrooms with preservatives. Though these fruits and vegetables look shiny on the outside, they’re full of chemicals. It’s disgusting to eat them. Businesses use these kinds of methods just to make money. They don’t care at all whether these things harm people’s health. In what way do they have any conscience? In this materialistic society, people worship money and are driven by profit. They live with the satanic poison of “Money makes the world go round,” and they just want to make more money, doing whatever it takes to achieve higher profits. Desire grows and grows like a snowball, and in the end, people become insatiably greedy, no longer caring about reputation, credibility, or integrity. Such people have lost the foundation for self-comportment and can’t even be called human anymore. They are simply living devils! I thought back to when I ran my business honestly. I never deceived anyone and kept prices fixed, and I was able to say I made money by relying on my conscience. But doing this meant I couldn’t retain customers or make money. Then I looked at my competitors, selling the same products as mine, but making money just by lying. Gradually, I started having dishonest thoughts. At first, when I lied, I felt an uneasiness in my conscience. I was afraid people would find out and expose me, and I was always terrified after lying. Later, driven by profit, lying became a regular habit of mine. I thought that no matter what methods or means I used, the true skill was to earn money by getting customers to buy my goods. They say, “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat” and only when you’ve got money in hand can you put food on the table. I passed off back trotters as front trotters to make a profit, and I passed off pork as beef to deceive customers. I even sold leftover pig intestines from the day before to a regular customer, and when he questioned me, I still didn’t admit to what I’d done. For the sake of my own interests, I cheated my customers again and again. God requires us to have humanity and conscience, but I went against God’s requirements for humans. I had no conscience at all, and I even found it hard to tell the truth. People act, and Heaven watches. God determines our outcomes based on our deeds. I would only make God loathe me if I was always being cunning and deceitful. God loves honest people and loathes deceitful ones. I couldn’t live by deceitful means any longer. So I prayed to God in my heart, “God, I know You want us to be honest, but I always failed to practice the truth. Please guide me to rebel against my flesh and live according to Your words.”

Later, when some restaurant buyers came back to buy beef, I was very conflicted, thinking, “If I tell them it’s sow meat, will they stop buying from us? Will they blame me for lying to them before?” I still wanted to say it was veal, but I realized it’d be wrong to keep lying. So I said, “Actually, this is sow meat, so it’s sold cheaper.” The buyers smiled, didn’t say anything, and left. After they left, my husband became angry and scolded me, “Why did you tell the truth? Now that they know it’s fake beef, they definitely won’t buy from us again.” In all honesty, I was also afraid that telling the truth would affect business, but I believed in God, and so I couldn’t cheat people anymore, and whether we would sell more or less was up to God. I said to my husband, “Whether they buy from us or not, we should tell the truth. We’re always cheating people, but how will you explain yourself when they find out it’s fake beef? It’s wrong to cheat people. In any case, I’m going to tell the truth. I can’t lie and cheat people anymore.” My husband glared at me but didn’t say anything else. But what I didn’t expect was that later on, one of the restaurant buyers said to me, “Actually, we’re well aware this isn’t real beef, otherwise how could it be so cheap? Though sow meat is also flavorful, the shredded meat is different from beef. To make money, we have to sell pork as beef, but I didn’t expect you to tell the truth.” After hearing this, I was convinced that practicing according to God’s words was the right thing to do, and I tasted the sweetness of being an honest person. Later, the trotters I was selling were fresh and purchased wholesale from the meat processing factory. The whole package of trotters was a mix of both front and back trotters. During the New Year, customers came to the stall and asked me, “Are these all front trotters?” I hesitated for a moment, and thought, “If they only buy the front trotters, the back trotters will be hard to sell, so I’ll just tell them they’re all fresh front trotters,” but I immediately rejected this thought and admonished myself inwardly, “God scrutinizes my every word and action, and I should speak the truth.” So, I told them the truth and also showed them how to identify front trotters, and they were able to identify the front trotters using my method. But some customers didn’t believe me, and said, “You’re not cheating us, are you?” With complete sincerity, I said to them, “If I were cheating you, I wouldn’t be telling you how to identify front trotters, and I’d just tell you they’re all front trotters.” After hearing this, they all bought quite a bit. As I watched the customers leave, I felt a great sense of ease in my heart.

Later, I read God’s words: “What is the significance of God requiring people to be honest, to become people without any selfish motives, intents, self-will, or adulterations, and without a dark side? It is to allow people to be cleansed of their corrupt dispositions, to gradually attain holiness, to live in the light, to live more freely and liberated, to be filled with enjoyment, and brimming with joy and peace—such are the most blessed people of all. God’s objective is to perfect people, to allow them to enjoy the greatest of all blessings. If you become this kind of person, what benefits can God obtain from you? Does God have any ulterior motives? Does He profit from this at all? (No.) So if a person is honest, who is the greatest beneficiary of this? (The person themselves.) What benefits and advantages can a person receive from this? (Their heart will be free and liberated, and their life will become easier and easier; they will be trusted more and more by others as they interact with them, and they will have normal relationships with other people.) What else? (When people conduct themselves in accordance with God’s words and requirements, they will no longer be in pain, instead, they will live relaxed, peaceful, and happy lives.) This feeling is quite real. So, what is the objective of God’s salvation of man? (To transform and cleanse people, so that in the end He can gain them.) What is the consequence of being gained by God? It is obtaining the wonderful destination that God has promised. So, who is the greatest beneficiary of this? (Man.) Man is the greatest beneficiary!” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Man Is the Greatest Beneficiary of God’s Management Plan). God has revealed in fellowship the meaning and purpose of His requirement for people to be honest. The purpose of God’s requirement for people to be honest is to allow people to cast off their corruption and be saved by God, to live according to the Creator’s requirements, and to live justly and with dignity. God’s words made me feel really guilty, and I thought about how I’d used lies and deception to make money in the past. Although I’d earned some money, my conscience was uneasy, and I had to keep covering up lies with more lies, which made life exhausting. My nerves were constantly on edge, and I was always afraid that one day my lies would fall apart and customers would cause trouble. Only by practicing according to God’s words and being honest can a person truly live in the light and have peace and assurance in their heart. The goods we now get are real, high-quality beef. Sometimes customers come to my stall to buy the cheap beef, and I tell them that the beef we were selling before was fake and harmful to the body, and that we no longer sell it. Also, if a product isn’t fresh from that same day, I tell the customers the truth, and they don’t mind, saying that it’s fine as long as it’s not spoiled, and they still buy it. In doing business this way, my heart feels at ease.

After going through this, I have come to learn that speaking the truth and practicing being an honest person brings ease and enjoyment to our hearts, and that this is something that money cannot buy. It was God’s words that transformed me from a profit-driven businessperson into someone who operates with integrity. Thank God!