This is a story that happened to an Avreich I know - we'll call him R' Meir - and I don't know what to make of it.
R' Meir had a wayward son who dropped out of Yeshiva. He was contacted and told that a certain Avreich - we'll call him R' Yaakov - would attempt to convince his son to go to Yeshiva, for a thousand dollars [!!]. Nu - what a father won't do for his son. He pays the thousand dollars and lo and behold, he was successful. The boy went to a Yeshiva.
Not a happy ending - yet. The boy dropped out of this Yeshiva too and veered very far off the path [drugs, alcohol etc. etc.].
R' Yaakov's BROTHER - we'll call him R' Aharon - needed a loan so he asked ... R' Meir, for a loan of a thousand dollars. R' Meir gave him the loan. When pay up time came, no money was in sight. A year and a half after the loan was due, R' Meir asked R' Aharon to repay the loan. R' Aharon said that he can't, nor did he offer to pay little by little [and he doesn't know that his brother R' Yaakov might have an extra thousand to help him out :-)].
That's it.
R' Meir is out of two thousand dollars and his son is on drugs.
Moral of the story: I don't know.... [Other than "הכל בידי שמים"].
I am curious what people think.
