Q&A: Is It Permissible to Buy in Order to Return?
Is It Permissible to Buy in Order to Return?
Question
I live in New York, and here it’s very easy to return things you bought even after several months. Is it permissible to buy a product even though I have no intention whatsoever of keeping it, but rather to return it after a period of time?
Answer
Absolutely not. This is verbal abuse / deceptive mistreatment, and it is even more akin to theft.
Discussion on Answer
It makes no difference at all. Stealing from a gentile is forbidden according to all opinions, even if not at the Torah level. And in my opinion, according to all opinions it is forbidden by the Torah, by virtue of the Meiri’s reasoning.
And even if it were permitted by the Torah, it’s not clear to me why an ordinary moral intuition wouldn’t be enough in your view. “Reasoning itself is Torah-level”—and even if not, it’s still reasoning! Far be it from us to say that God does not expect us to be simply moral human beings. And this is obvious to me (I assume Michi agrees with what I’m saying; I’m writing to ask. Michi, do you agree?)
Completely.
What if the seller is a gentile?