Question about Debt

General Theravada topics
1

Let’s say you hired a college counselor to help you with things like writing college application essays, doing research, and getting into good colleges. You paid them half the total price upfront for their services as agreed.
However, after a while, the counselor stopped helping you — they didn’t reply to your messages, didn’t review your essays, and basically abandoned the job they agreed to do.

In this case, would you still owe them the remaining money?

I think since the counselor did not complete their side of the agreement, you don’t actually owe them the rest of the payment. Payment is supposed to match the service provided. If they stopped helping, then you are not obligated to pay more.

So, I think this shouldn’t prevent you from ordaining.
Paying the remaining amount “just in case” would simply waste money due to not fully understanding what is right and wrong according to morality and fairness, since there was no actual moral fault to correct.

Life of an ascetic
2

This doth not constitute a true debt; for according to the Vinaya, a debt is that which one truly deserves (i.e., His rightful legal right in terms of ownership). Fair exchange and honest dealings are the essence of the matter—each party must fulfill their part of the covenant.

And for a jesting addition: were we to consider this scenario calmly, even if you were generous and prone to wastefulness and wished to pay the remaining half, you do not have that option— for the other party, as you mentioned, has abandoned you and now plays the character of a man struck with sudden blindness: gazing at the heavens, avoiding you. To put it mildly, you have been swindled, mate.

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3

I doth agree. The covenant hath been broken.

Renaldo

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