Sweet Deal

The Background

A friend of mine shared this fascinating story with me. He said it taught him a major lesson — and he graciously agreed to share it with Klal Yisrael.

Iused to be in a pretty sweet business: I had an ice cream store in New York City. It was in a prime location with plenty of tourist traffic, and business was so brisk I started thinking about opening another store. In July 2019 I found the perfect spot: in Times Square. The lawyers went to work, and we finalized a lease in November. Now all I needed was a loan.

As a longstanding client at a prominent New York bank, applying for a loan there was not a big deal, and I was approved within the month. I was just waiting for the bank to send me the money so I could start serving up scoops.

One day, a letter arrived in the mail from the bank. I was a little curious — who deals with clients through the mail these days? — and I opened the envelope.

I started reading the letter — Is this some sort of prank? I thought.