of wages earned; merchants who
charge unjust prices and seek unjust profits; dealers who give light
weight or short measure or who misrepresent goods; those who speculate
rashly or gamble with the money of others, and those who borrow with no
intention or only slight hope of being able to pay back, all violate
this Commandment. You violate it also by not paying your just debts or
by purchasing goods that you know you will never be able to pay for.
Moreover, besides the injustice, it is base ingratitude not to pay your
debts when in your power to do so. The one who trusted or lent you
helped you in your need and did you a great favor, and yet when you can
you will not pay, and what is worse, frequently abuse and insult him for
asking his own. Though such dishonest and ungrateful persons may escape
in this world, they will not escape in the next, for Almighty God will
make them suffer for the smallest debt they owe.

Again, others often suffer for the dishonesty of those I have mentioned,
for when some good person who really intends to pay is in great need and
wishes to borrow or be trusted, he is refused because others have been
dishonest. Everyone should pay his debts, and even keep from buying
things that are not really necessary till he is thus enabled to pay what
he owes. You must pay your just debts even before you can give anything
in charity.

374 Q. What are we commanded by the Seventh Commandment?
A. By the Seventh Commandment we are commanded to give to all men what
belongs to them and to respect their property.

"Respect their property"--that is, acknowledge and respect their rights
to their property and do nothing to violate these rights.

375 Q. What is forbidden by the Seventh Commandment?
A. The Seventh Commandment forbids all unjust taking or keeping what
belongs to another.

"Taking," either with your own hands or from the hands of another; for
the one who willingly and knowingly receives from a thief the whole or
part of anything stolen becomes as bad as the thief. Even if you only
help another to steal, and receive none of the stolen goods, you are
guilty. There are several ways of sharing in the sin of another; namely,
by ordering or advising him to do wrong; by praising him for doing wrong
and thus encouraging him; by consenting to wrong when you should oppose
it--for instance, a member of a society allowing an evil act to be done
by the society when his vote would prevent it; again, by affordi