It says in Mishlei “Bad will occur because he guaranteed a stranger!”, and Chazal said that one evil after another will happen to guarantors who undertake upon themselves that the creditor can approach them before he approaches the debtor. Since nowadays most guarantees are of this type, one must be careful to avoid this.
However, a person is confused about this, as there are times when it is Impossible to avoid being a guarantor. An example of this is when he goes with a friend to do business and they ask him to be a guarantor for his friend, where if he refuses he will cause his friend great damage, as the other people will assume that the reason that he is refusing to be a guarantor for his friend is because he does not trust him and they will also start to mistrust him. It follows that the correct path that a person should follow in this matter is that he should not become a guarantor for his friend unless he takes something from the friend as security for the loan. If he is unable to do this, he should say in front of all of his acquaintances that he has undertaken never to become a guarantor even for the king himself, and should actually make sure never to become a guarantor for anybody. If they ask him to become a guarantor, if he has money he should himself lend the person money, and if not, he should say that he never guarantees loans. Once everybody knows that that is his custom, there will be no complaints.
