A Rebuke Delivered With Love

A contractor once renovated the kitchen of a chossid of the Rebbe and never received his payment. When the Rebbe heard, he called the chossid in and told him that he needed advice about building work on his own kitchen, and he asked if he might see the chossid's kitchen. When he arrived at the house he saw that the work had been done properly and that the chossid had no complaint against the contractor.

Then the Rebbe said that he had heard the chossid had not paid. If he wanted Hashem to give him good things, he said, he should treat people properly and pay them for work done. Soon afterward the chossid paid. The incident showed that the Rebbe weighed both sides before deciding what to do and gave his tochacha in a way that would be accepted.