Anyone stupid enough to promise to be responsible for a stranger's debts ought to have their own property held to guarantee payment.

If you take someone's cloak as a pledge that he will pay you, you must give it back to him before the sun sets,

because it is the only covering he has to keep him warm. What else can he sleep in? When he cries out to me for help, I will answer him because I am merciful.

The widow of a member of a group of prophets went to Elisha and said, "Sir, my husband has died! As you know, he was a God-fearing man, but now a man he owed money to has come to take away my two sons as slaves in payment for my husband's debt."