(Minghui.org) Several thousand pigs died on a swine farm in Henan during an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in the spring of 2010. This caused financial problems for the local grain vendors who sold and delivered corn to the farm. Because the farm needed less corn, the corn market suffered.
To recover some of its losses, the swine farm announced that corn vendors would be paid for the first truckload only after they delivered the fifth load. The farm owed the grain vendors thousands of yuan.
A grain vendor named Chen suffered no losses during this disease outbreak, and was paid all the money owed to him. This puzzled the other vendors. Chen knew that he was being rewarded for doing the right thing and following his wife's suggestion.
Chen lives in the suburbs of a county town. He buys corn from the local farmers and sells it to the swine farm.
A woman at the swine farm who was in charge of receiving the corn deliveries had the job of inspecting the corn quality, weighing it, and paying the vendors. The vendors noticed that she did not pay much attention to quality control, so they started to add bags of soil to the corn deliveries. They added two bags of soil to each truckload. The corn was received without being checked, and the vendors were happy.
Initially, Chen also added soil to the corn he delivered. His wife, who is a Falun Gong practitioner and follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, advised him, “Don't adulterate the corn. It's immoral and we should not do it! No loss, no gain. If we do the right thing and follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, we will be rewarded. If we do underhanded deeds we will receive retribution.”
Chen laughed at his wife and said, “I'm a vendor and I do business to make money. This has nothing to do with Dafa's principles. You practice your Dafa. I'll attend to my business. Don't interfere with my business.”
Chen continued adding soil to the corn and delivered it to the swine farm. When the next load of corn was unloaded, two bags of corn were not counted. He was unhappy and said, “It's a coincidence that I added two bags of soil and lost two bags of corn. I've gained nothing.”
When he told his wife what happened, she said, “It's not a coincidence. Heaven is watching us and you're being shown not to do something immoral. Don't add soil to the corn.”
Chen did not agree and insisted, “The loss of those two bags was due to mishandling during the unloading. I will make sure every bag is handled carefully next time, so that they're not ripped open.”
During the next delivery Chen loaded the truck himself and made sure every bag was tightened. He thought no bags would be lost this time. On his way to the farm, his truck had a flat tire. The new tire cost him a little over 400 yuan ($60), which was the price of two bags of corn.
When he thought it over, Chen felt that his wife might be right, so he decided not to add soil to the corn any longer. The woman at the swine farm subsequently realized that Chen was honest, and different from the other vendors.
Another demonstration of Chen's honesty touched the woman. Chen usually loaded 6000 kilograms (13228 pounds) of corn onto the truck each time. One day it was cloudy and going to rain, so he did not fully load his truck. When he arrived at the swine farm, the woman told Chen, “No need to weigh the load. I know it's 6000 kilograms. Go ahead and unload the corn.”
Chen recalled his wife's advice and said, “I loaded less this time. Please weigh it.”
The truckload of corn weighed 5000 kilograms. The woman was touched by his honesty and said, “If 1000 kilograms of corn were missing, the boss would deduct the difference from my salary. You are so honest! There are not many people like you in China now. I really appreciate you. Today I'll pay all the money we owe you for your corn deliveries. From now on, we will pay you right away instead of making you wait.”
Soon afterwards, the outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease described at the beginning occurred. The vendors who added soil to the corn suffered large financial losses. But Chen escaped the disaster.
Chen was touched by this incident and became more understanding and supportive of his wife's Falun Dafa practice.
