[Avodah] Hasagat Gevul of a bus company

[Akiva Miller]

R' Toby Katz wrote:
> I remember the famous story of the Chofetz Chaim, who
> supposedly tore up a postage stamp when he gave a letter
> to someone to deliver personally -- so that the government
> wouldn't lose the money it was "owed."  I never understood
> that story because if you didn't use the government's
> service, why should you have to pay the government anyway?

I'm much more familiar with a different story, in which the Chofetz Chaim
brought a package to the post office, and the clerk took the package,
marked it as "paid", and refused to accept any money from the sage. In
this version, it makes perfect sense that the Chafetz Chaim would not
want the post office to lose the money that it was indeed owed.

Akiva Miller

Postscript: About 25 months ago, we discussed various versions of this
story. See the posts by R' Arie Folger in Digest 27:224
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol27/v27n224.shtml#07>,
and by myself <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol27/v27n225.shtml#03>
and R' Micha Berger <www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol27/v27n225.shtml#06>
in 27:225, under the header, 'Are "Gedolim Stories" Good for Chinuch?'