How would you like to be rich?

Years ago a friend of mine was in the city centre when someone came up to him and asked this question: "How would you like to be rich?" - It was at a time when there was a lot of pyramid-selling going on. Pyramid-selling is an illegal scheme for making money out of people who do not properly understand that the scheme is a non-sustainable business model that brings profit only to the early participants/con-artists, and that later joiners inevitably lose money.

My friend was not interested in making money out of conning people out of their money. When asked, "How would you like to be rich?" he replied, "Spiritually," and went on his way.

This little anecdote seems to me to be related to Jesus's words: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

If we profit from another's loss by cheating/lying/stealing/etc. there is a loss to us too. We damage our character, our reputation, our self-esteem, our peace of mind. That is a big price to pay