S No 1 /3 Originally published on 1st September 2006
A young man was passing by a money lender’s shop and the young man had heard that the money lender was a Freemason.
The young man went into the shop and said to the money lender. “I have heard that you are a Freemason. I am also a Freemason and I desperately need a loan of Rs 5,000/-. I shall pay you back within a week. Of course you don’t know me, but the fact that both of us are Freemasons should be good enough for you to lend me Rs five Thousand on my word to repay it back.”
The money lender looked at the young man and seeing that he appeared to be quite respectable, lent him Rs Five Thousand. Before the week was up the young man had repaid Rs five Thousand to the money lender.
About a year later the young man was being initiated in a Lodge – he had not really been a Freemason when he had borrowed Rs 5,000/- from the money lender. During the ceremony of Initiation the young man happened to look round the Lodge Room and saw the money Lender sitting with other members of the Lodge. He was very worried and wondered if he had been recognized by the Money Lender.
After the ceremony, the young man tried to keep away from the Money Lender, but to the young man’s surprise the money lender came up to him with outstretched hands and greeted him as a brother.
The money lender said, “I see that when I loaned you that Five Thousand a year ago you were not a Freemason.”
“No”, said the young man, somewhat embarrassed, “But when I saw your shop a year ago, and having heard that Freemasons were charitable people, I decided to see if this were true. You loaned me Rs 5,000/- and my conclusion was that Freemasons do help their brothers in distress and being impressed with this attitude, I decided to seek to become a Freemason. I hope you will forgive me for having lied to you a year ago.”
“Of course”, said the money lender. “In fact, I owe you an apology my self, because, at that time a year ago when you borrowed Rs 5,000/-, I was not myself a Freemason. But having heard that Freemasons were true to their word I decided to loan you Rs five thousand and see if you would pay it back as you then promised. When you did pay back the five thousand as you had agreed, I then decided that Freemasons do keep their word, so I sought to become a Freemason also. I was initiated at the last meeting of the Lodge!”
Moral of the story;-
There is enough goodness in all of us with or without being Freemasons.
ANCIENT MASONIC INITIATION
“You have come to us bound, half-naked, and defenseless. You have no money with which to feed and Lodge yourself, no armor to ward off the blows of your enemies, no weapons with which to defend yourself.”
“Take comfort from the fact that all of your brothers are sworn to help you. If you are naked, we will clothe you. If you are hungry, we will feed you. We will shelter and protect you from your enemies. We will keep your secrets. Your call for help will never go unanswered.”
Kaps
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