"Oh, my father! I did not think that he was so strict!

"He is strict when necessary," he replied to me, "but at the same time this learned casuist, remarking that it is only the desire for profit that makes us engage in usury, adds: "A great deal, therefore, would help the people if, protecting them from the evil effects of covetousness, and at the same time from the sin which causes this vice, they would give them the means of obtaining the same and even greater profit from their money by some useful and lawful use of it, which turns out to be covetousness."

"Certainly, my father, there would be no more moneylenders.

"And for this," he said, "he proposed 'one general method for people of all kinds: nobles, chairmen, councillors, etc.' It is so easy that it consists only in the use of certain words that must be pronounced when lending money; after that, one can make a profit without fear that it will be covetous, as it would undoubtedly be if one did otherwise here.

"And what are these mysterious sayings, my father?"

"Here they are," said the priest, "and word for word, for you know that Fr. Escobar wrote his Summation of Sins in French, in order to be understood by all, as he says in the preface: 'He who is asked to borrow money will therefore answer in this way: I have no money to lend, but I can borrow it on condition that I receive an honest and lawful income. If you wish to use this sum for business with the stipulation that the profits and losses are divided in half, perhaps I will decide to do so. It is also true that it is too difficult to agree on a profit, so if you would agree to provide me with a certain share of the income and capital, so that they would not be subject to accident, we would agree at once, and I could give you the money immediately." Is it not a convenient way to get money without sin, and is not Father Boni right when he concludes this method with the following words: "This, in my opinion, is the way in which a multitude of people, who provoke the just indignation of God against them by their covetousness, their extortions, and their unlawful contracts, can be saved by obtaining beautiful, honest, and lawful benefits"?

"Oh, my father," I said, "these words have great power. Undoubtedly, there is some secret power in them, capable of banishing covetousness, which, however, I do not understand; I have always thought that this sin consists in getting more money than it has been borrowed.

"You don't know much about it," he said. "Greed, in the opinion of our fathers, consists almost exclusively in the intention to receive this profit precisely as a profit. And so our Father Escobar teaches us to avoid covetousness by simply deviating from intention (Tr. 3, Prov. 5, NoNo 4, 33, 44): "It would be covetous," he says, "to take advantage of those whom you lend, if you demand it in the name of justice; but if it is demanded in the form of gratitude, then this is no longer covetousness." And under No 3: "It is not permitted to intend to benefit directly from borrowed money; but to have a claim to it through the benevolence of the one who has been borrowed, media benevolentia, is not covetousness."

Here are the refined methods for you; but one of the best, in my opinion (since we have so many to choose from), is the Mohatra Treaty method.

"The Treaty of Mohatra, my father!"

"I see," he said, "that you don't know what it is. Only the name is strange. Escobar will explain this to you (Tr. 3, Prov. 3, No 36): "The contract of Mohatra is that by means of which cloths are bought at a high price and on credit, in order to immediately resell them to the same person for cash and cheaply." This is what the Mohatra contract means: you see from this that a certain amount of cash is obtained, and there remains an obligation for a large amount.

"But, my father, it seems to me that Escobar alone uses the word; Are there any other books that have talked about it?

"How ignorant you are," said the priest. The latest book on moral theology, which was published this year in Paris, speaks about the Mohatra Treaty and is very scientific. It is entitled Epilogus Summanm. It is an abbreviation of all the sums of theology, borrowed from our Fathers: Suárez, Sánchez, Lessius, Fagundes, Hurtado, and other famous casuists, as indicated in the title. You will therefore find there on page 54: "Mohatra is a contract in which a man, in need of twenty pistoles, buys thirty pistoles worth of cloth from a merchant, to be paid in a year's time, and immediately sells it back to him for twenty pistoles in cash." You can clearly see from this that Mohatra is not at all an unheard-of word.

"And then, my father, is this treaty permitted?"