The Sale They Never Expected

by Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

Jewelry salesman Berel Gurwitz and Avrohom Silver were not feeling hopeful. March of 1982 had been an abysmal month for the jewelry industry. Still they continued to make every effort to sell, and traveled from state to state with the heavy gold chains then popular in the Puerto Rican community.

One evening they were driving through Connecticut and saw the sign for Deitsch Plastic. Cheered by the sight of a familiar name, they decided to stop and say hello. They found Dovid sitting in the office saying Tehillim. The businessman looked up at them, saw their briefcase, and asked, “Who are you collecting money for?” They laughed and explained that they were in the middle of a business trip, but that this was no more than a social visit.

“Show us your merchandise,” Dovid said, “Maybe there is something I could purchase for my wife.” Hesitantly they started pulling out the chains. Dovid called all the members of his family who were in the factory that day.

To Mr. Gurwitz the entire scene made no sense. They were commonplace, flashy pieces. “It wasn’t something that Mrs. 

Deitsch was going to wear,” he said. Mr. Silver told Dovid that if his wife didn’t like the chains, he could always return it for a refund. “We don’t do returns,” Dovid said.

He kept looking through the chains as if he hadn’t found what he wanted. “You’re selling by weight,” he said finally. “Show me some heavier items.” They brought out one very heavy chain that they could not get rid of. “This one I like,” Dovid said. “My wife would not like what I purchase anyway, so what is the difference what I buy? It’s the thought that counts.”

In the end the Deitsch family purchased a large number of chains. Mr. Silver and Mr. Gurwitz began to weigh each item and mark down the prices, but Dovid stopped them.

“Give me the list price,” he said. At first they didn’t understand, and he explained that he wanted to pay what the chains would cost in a store. The two men left the factory with $1,300 (around $4,500 today). “It was as if an angel had descended from heaven to help us,” Mr. Gurwitz said.

Dovid must have seen the dejection on their faces, Mr. Gurwitz explained, and decided to give them reason to smile. “We felt like a million bucks.”

An excerpt from the forthcoming book Yards of Kindness: The Life of Dovid and Sara Deitsch, available at HasidicArchives.com.