A man cheated Sadhu Sundar Singh but punished by God

On another journey, in the Himalayan foothills, Sadhu Sundar Singh was met by a man who appeared to be in great distress and asked him for money. His friend, he said, had died suddenly on the road – he pointed to a figure on the ground covered with a piece of cloth – and he had no money to bury him. Sundar only had to coins and his blanket, but he gave all to the man and went on his way. A short time later, the man came running after him sobbing. His friend was dead, he gasped.

Sundar naturally was mystified. “Yes, so you told me”, he said.

“But he is really dead”, the man blurted out and then went on to admit that the whole thing had been a hoax. He and his companion had been preying on passers-by in this way for years, taking turns to feign dead and so extract money from unsuspecting travelers. Now they had led to a holy man! They had taken his money and his blanked and this was judgment on them. His companion was already dead, the distraught man said, and now what disaster would happen to the living man? The man was overcome with his sense of guilt.

Sundar, of course, had the answer, telling him that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven, for God’s Son, on the Cross, had already borne the punishment due to the sinner. The man’s heart was ready to receive what was to him astounding news, and the outcome was that after spending some time with Sundar, he went to a mission station of which Sundar told him, was duly baptized and became a church member.