Solomon’s Lesson: I Check Three Times Who I Am Doing Business With

I am a big fan of Vrdoljak’s series ‘Beggars and Sons’. In Saturday’s episode, the now-adult Matan buys goods worth 130,000 dinars on credit from the Jew Solomon. Matan swears to him on his already proven honesty because he has returned money before, but Solomon demands Matan’s estate as collateral, which is worth exactly that much. The cunning Matan is surprised how he knows about the estate, and old Solomon says: ‘Oh my Matan, I check three times who I am doing business with.’

In my Bosnia, they would say about that scene: ‘You won’t outsmart the Jew, even if his name is Matan!’ The next day, on Sunday, I had a master named Zdravko who, together with another partner, has a construction company. Before that, he had a company with another partner, but it failed because the partner, he told me, made illogical moves (buying cars through the company, building a house at the company’s expense, and various other things). After that, Zdravko founded another company and took all the workers from the failed one. I was convinced he works well because his workers solved some problems in our building, so I called him to fix the problem of water leaking from the boiler pipe, which regularly happens to me when it rains heavily.

Simply – he trusted him. So, while working, we chatted, and I asked him what was with his former partner from the previous company. He stopped, turned around, and said more pitifully than out of revolt that his former partner took all his savings of 100,000 kuna. How is that, I asked, and he simply said:
− He has now transferred the house, cars, and everything else to his wife, while the debts remain. Since we are jointly liable for obligations, as we signed, and he has no way to pay, I have to – says Zdravko.
I told him I didn’t want to give him advice, but how could he sign such a thing and allow the company to bear his partner’s private expenses. He shrugged and said he simply trusted him, he seemed honest to him, and that was how it was at first. There were even some gestures where his partner helped him out (loaning money, etc.), which further gained Zdravko’s trust. Otherwise, before that, although they knew each other from construction circles, they had no serious contact until his partner proposed to establish a company.

Punishment for Zdravko Zdravko gave all his savings, but he fears that this is not the end because the company still owes some money. After that, I told him the scene from ‘Beggars’ where old Solomon, laughing mischievously, says that he always checks three times who he is doing business with, what they have in terms of assets, who they associate with, etc. I told him that he made an incredible oversight because at least construction workers know quite a bit about each other, and it would have been enough to just inquire about who is offering him a partnership in the company.
Zdravko’s story is instructive, just like that of old Solomon. I am not one of those who will see everything in black and say that people are evil. Neither is everything black around us, nor are people evil. The only truth is that all people are selfish to a certain extent and that in many situations they will first satisfy their own interests. However, one should have a dose of caution like old Solomon because acting like Zdravko is extremely naive. For consolation, I told him that he could sue his former partner and find a good lawyer, but he must clearly prove that the partner knowingly transferred assets to his wife. I told him to prepare for a long process, but that would also be a kind of punishment for not thinking about it in time.