Jainism

Tradition·Founded c. 550 BCE·est. ~4–5 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Jainism

Branch
Precept of Jainism

Asteya — and the merchant's word.

Take nothing that is not given, which the commentaries extend to false weights, adulteration, evading duty, and profiting from another's desperation. Jains are heavily concentrated in trade and finance, and the reputation this vow built is a business asset the community has spent centuries maintaining and is quite clear-eyed about.

What it asksAsteya — take nothing not given, including advantage, including information
Who it bindsEveryone, and it reaches into trade: no adulteration, no false weight, no cornering a market in a famine
Where it bitesBy the fact that Jains are disproportionately merchants, financiers and diamond traders, and the vow is the reason the community's word became collateral in itself
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Asteya covers taking what has not been given, and the commentarial extensions are commercial: adulterating goods, using false weights and measures, dealing in stolen property, smuggling, evading duties, and exploiting a shortage. Because Jains are heavily concentrated in trade, banking, jewellery and the diamond business — the Palanpuri Jain community's move into the Antwerp diamond trade from the 1960s is the most-cited modern instance — the vow has functioned as a commercial reputation and, in effect, as collateral. Historians of Indian commerce, including on the hundi bill-of-exchange networks that moved money across the subcontinent before formal banking, have noted the role of community reputation in enabling credit without enforcement, and Jain and Marwari networks are the standard examples. The community is quite clear-eyed that the ethical vow and the business advantage are entangled, and Jain business ethics is a live genre of writing within it, including sustained criticism of members who trade on the reputation without keeping the vow.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Right livelihood. Buddhism Go deeper →
Hanuman leaps the strait. Hinduism · story Read it in full →
The commandments are how the covenant is lived. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
The Ten Commandments. Christianity Go deeper →
Halal — the lawful. Islam Go deeper →
Work honestly, and share what you earn. Sikhism · core tenet Go deeper →

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