Borrowing a Trade-Show Pass
QUESTION 49: BORROWING A TRADE-SHOW PASS
I was able to register on-line to get a free pass to
the PC Expo show, but didn't get around to doing it.
A friend who had a pass went the first day, and offered
to lend me his pass for the second day. Can I use it?
Is there a problem of chillul Hashem when people at the
show assume I'm the person written on the badge, and I
tell them that I'm just borrowing a friend's badge?
RABBI BELSKY
If you already registered and you lost your badge, so
then you could use his. There's no question about that.
It belongs to you; you just don't have the proof, so you
use some other proof, namely his badge. But if you
didn't register, it's not as simple. A lot of people
could have done things, but they don't get around to
it, and so they don't own what they could have owned.
I suppose by now it's too late.
QUESTIONER
In the week or two before the convention, the free on-line
registration ended, and after that the fee is $25. I'm
not sure why they do it that way. But two weeks before
the actual conference the free registration ends, and you
can't register for free anymore.
RABBI BELSKY
What happens when a store charges a certain price, and if
you register early you get a discount, otherwise you have
to pay full price? Somebody comes at the last minute and
he makes phony papers that indicate that he registered
two weeks earlier. You're taking a service that is being
sold at $25 - it has that value - and you're taking it and
not paying for it. Just because you had an opportunity
to get it for nothing and you didn't take it, doesn't mean
you have a right to take it now.
QUESTIONER
The example you gave that is permissible, where if I lost
my badge and use someone else's, is there a problem then
of chilul Hashem? Do I then have to tell people at the
show that it's not my real name, that I really have
someone else's badge because I lost my badge?
RABBI BELSKY
You don't have to tell them. You're not
obligated to tell them you lost your badge.
QUESTIONER
But what if they want to contact me in the future, and they
ask me my name? Then I'd have to say this is not my real
name, that I'm using someone else's badge, and get into
the story that I lost my badge. Would I have to worry
about the possibility of chilul Hashem?
RABBI BELSKY
If you feel it may come to that, then you have a problem.
Then you can't do it. But if you're not going to do any
business, you could tell them, "No, I'm not interested
right now ..."
QUESTIONER
So I should avoid telling people this badge is really not mine.
RABBI BELSKY
Absolutely. Telling them would cause all kinds of suspicion.
NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION 50: PERSONAL BUSINESS AT WORK DURING LUNCH
There is some personal business that I sometimes do during
my lunch hour. I told my boss about it, and he said as
long as I do it on my own time (e.g. during lunch) that's
fine. When I use the phone for this purpose at lunch,
it might be that the person in the next cubicle can overhear,
and he may be wondering, why is that Orthodox Jew doing that
non-work activity during work hours. Would it reduce the
potential for chillul Hashem if I mention it to the person
in the next cubicle, so he doesn't get the wrong impression?
Is doing that in any way an obligation of mine, i.e. to reduce
the potential appearances of chillul Hashem, even when one
is not doing anything wrong?
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