Printed from www.10easythings.com

TRY THIS:
Can you remember stealing something when you were just a kid? Maybe candy, maybe baseball cards - maybe from someone, maybe from a store.

Can you return it now? Maybe you can pay back its value? Do it quietly. But try it, at least once. As a last resort estimate the value and donate it to Tzedaka (a Jewish charity).

WHY IT HELPS:
This is a great little exercise in honesty and persistence, for it reaffirms where you stand on issues central to Jewish practice and Halachah (Torah mandates).

And it's not always easy to track down the owner of something you want to return. Not to mention how strange it will be for the recipient to suddenly have an ancient artifact from his childhood pop up years later. But that's not your concern. Just understand the principle here.

Kids don't appreciate moral values and a clean concious, so mistakes of youth can happen. But, now you're older.

You expect other people to be honest, and trustworthy. They assume you are too. When you correct even one mistaken act from years ago you set the stage for a clear-minded future, as you strengthen your desire for higher levels of greatness.

When you decide its time, try to make a move in this area.

DEEPER MEANINGS:
In the sefer Tomer Devorah, R. Moshe Cordevero (The Ramak) tells us a foundation to spiritual growth requires us to relate to our fellow man the way G-d relates to us (Just as G-d is merciful, we must be too. Just as G-d helps the weak, we must too, etc.)

There it is written, G-d has an attribute of "patience." That means, years can go by before someone is taken to task for a past transgression. Inherent in G-d's "patience" is the expectation that people will eventually come to realize their past errors and move to rectify them.

Paying back old debts, even those long forgotten, clarifies our understanding that just as G-d is honest with us, we must strive to be an honest, trustworthy member of the world community.

Paraphrased from HaRav Moshe Cordevero (The Ramak), Tomer Devorah, 1:5