The nature of money is from blood, tears, and sweat.

CLEAN MONEY

Tiến ran to hug his grandfather and proudly talked:
"Grandpa, I've been granted a full scholarship to study abroad. My test was excellent. You could reward me, please..."

His grandfather smiled gently:
"Sure. I'll give you something worthy of your outstanding achievement. Will your dad come home early from work this evening?"

"I've heard he will be busy at the meeting and may not come home for dinner."
"Do you know why your dad has a high position, and you're good at studying?"

Tiến was so naive, said:
"Because the background of our family is so good. You were a high-level official, so my dad was supported, and I have good conditions to study better."

His grandfather shook his head and said:
"It's not true. There are many cases like mine, but their descendants are in ruin. Our family is successful and prosperous because I raised your dad with clean money."

• "You know there is no government that can afford to pay officials well."

• "The budget always needs to invest and support a lot of stuff for the country so the salary for civil servants is very low. Low wages are a huge challenge to the ethics of civil servants. They can be good, but they can find it hard to live in a poor condition for a long time. Then temptation would be unavoidable. They were open to corruption in order to make their living more comfortable. Their responsibility was big, but their salary was low. Thus, they tried to manage to make a better living from bribes."

• "It's lucky that I asked myself how they could have such an amount of money. They could even give me a hundred times more than my salary. Everyone could love money. But where did that money come from?"

• "If they are citizens, they will be forced to cut down on family life benefits. They must reduce the money for clothes, medical treatment, school, or they have to save the money for a very long time to buy a house. It is so pitiful for their family."

• "If they are companies or organizations, they must cut down their employees' interests. All welfare, interest, and benefit are the workers' sweat. How can I live off their sweat?"

• "If they are a criminal organization, then that money must be bloody. It is from women trade, kidnapped children, and from drug smuggling. I dared not take it."

• "From these viewpoints, I tried my best to help people and any company that needed my help without taking any penny from them. So, they really liked me. And I thought our family was blessed. The more upright I was, the more rice noodles your grandmother could sell. Thanks to that, our family lived a life of comfort. Your dad had a good education, and your two uncles were successful in study, too."

• "From my experience, I taught your dad to believe in the goodness and the justice of the universe. Now, your dad has a high position. He should copy my previous work to serve people without receiving anything from them so that you guys can become good people."

• Tiến asked:

• "But my mom doesn't sell rice noodles."\

• His grandfather just burst out laughing:

• "But your mom works for an airline agent and you guys have a good living, as well."

---

• In fact, the responsibility of governing officials is very important, but they must stand for nitpicking and be blamed for everything people don't like. Governing officials have hardly got the high payment, while money from bribes has always been too appealing to say no. In fact, money isn't always wrong, for example money from gratitude and volunteering because it does reflect the Karma Law. But, it will be wrong if officials offer help on the condition of money return.

• Monks and nuns should pay attention to this matter, too. People can offer anything at their will to Sangha when they need Sangha to hold ceremonies for their family. Sangha always benefits from devoting themselves to people, without laying down any condition of offerings. The equitable rule is the truth.

• The nature of money is from blood, tears, and sweat. If we take money from others, we can find it hard to feel free or peaceful. Clean money can help raise our descendants to become good persons: while dirty money will ruin our life and our descendants' lives.

• Even though clean money isn't too easy to earn, it can bring happiness to us for many lives later.

Written by:
Janna

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