3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—
It is important to take an honest assessment of ourselves from time to time. Often people do a quick, superficial assessment at New Years. But New Years does not provide the kind of pressure that is needed for an honest and full assessment. The man in our story has been slacking at his work. He gets caught and must give and accounting to the boss man of his dealings. This scares him to death. He knows he has not done what he should have. He even knows that he has stolen the owner’s property. But at this moment he at least has some forethought. He goes to each of the owner’s distributors and has them reduce the amount they owe the owner. This man has been caught stealing. The owner does not know the amount. This man increases the amount that appears stolen by him. He increases his own liability. At the same time he makes friends with each of the distributors. And he does all this because he realizes that he has limited employment options. He does not have the physical strength for the labor market and he has too much shame to resort to begging. He is at least honest as he looks at himself, so he increases his guilt so others get the benefit. His actions make his crime look even greater. After he cooks the books of these distributors it appears that he has stolen even more than he really has. Have you ever increased your punishment so that someone else’s punishment would be diminished? He didn’t steal these extra quantities of product, but he makes it look as though he did. He voluntarily becomes the fall guy, the scapegoat.
The Arnold Journey 