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Part I: On Virtue

Section I: Prologue

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Chapter 51: Testing and Trusting Men

Verse 501
In choosing a partner, this businessman is studying whether one candidate deals virtuously with four situations. Not well, he finds, for the man is seen cheating at cards, carousing, indulging his appetites and failing to accept the natural passing of a relative.

TAKA Presents the Tirukural

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Weaver's Wisdom

Verse 501

Pick that man who passes a four-fold test:
how he handles virtue, wealth, pleasure and loss of life.

Verse 502

Place trust in a man of good family, free from faults,
with a modest nature that dreads reproach.

Verse 503

Even faultless, deeply learned men, when closely examined,
are rarely found to be entirely free from ignorance.

Verse 504

Weigh a man's merits and weigh his faults,
then judge him according to the greater.

Verse 505

The touchstone that discloses a man's greatness
or smallness is simply this: his deeds.

Verse 506

Beware of trusting men who have no kin.
Unattached to people, they are unashamed of misdeeds.

Verse 507

When a man employs a know-nothing out of affection,
he engages all kinds of foolishness.

Verse 508

To trust a stranger without investigation invites troubles
so endless that even descendants must endure them.

Verse 509

Without investigation, trust no one. Having investigated,
entrust a man with matters for which he is trustworthy.

Verse 510

To trust a man who has not been tested and to suspect a man
who has proven trustworthy lead alike to endless ills.