Another reason why a person sometimes refrains from giving a loan is that he is afraid of getting a reputation in town that he is wealthy and he will be demanded to pay extra taxes for the town. This, however, is not a valid argument, because this type of concern is not a reason to exempt him from a positive commandment of the Torah. This is similar to a person who does not want to give tzedakah because he is afraid he will not have money in the future — about whom the Torah warns that his punishment is severe. Rather, one must have trust in Hashem that by doing mitzvos with his money, he will suffer no harm. On the contrary, he will gain extra blessing in his possessions. Therefore, even if it really does happen that as a result of his giving charity and loans he loses some of his money to taxes and the like, he should pay no attention to this at all, for the Holy One will certainly give him back anything he may have lost due to keeping the mitzvos. He should contemplate this: If he had a thriving business from which he was earning a fortune, would he give any attention to a few pennies that his lost in doing those deals? Here, too, he is earning a fantastic reward from these mitzvos plus eternal life in the World to Come. Should he refrain from keeping these mitzvos just because of the loss of a few pennies?

Furthermore, if he is really concerned about such losses, he can give the money to another person whom he trusts, and that person will be the one to run the gemach (free-loan fund) and give out the loans, without anyone knowing whose money it is.