Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses a situation where an object or animal is borrowed for an unconventional purpose that does not provide a tangible financial benefit. The question being, if there is no real monetary value received perhaps it is insufficient to incur the financial liabilities that are normally part of the borrowers contract:

שְׁאָלָהּ לֵירָאוֹת בָּהּ מַהוּ מָמוֹנָא בָּעֵינַן וְהָאִיכָּא אוֹ דִלְמָא מָמוֹנָא דְּאִית לֵיהּ הֲנָאָה מִינֵּיהּ בָּעֵינַן וְלֵיכָּא

A similar question: If one borrowed an item, not to use it but to be seen with it, so that people will assume that he is wealthy, what is the halakha? In order for him to be liable, do we require that he borrow an item of monetary worth, and that exists in this case? Or, perhaps we require that he borrow an item of monetary worth from which he also derives tangible benefit, and that does not exist in this case.

It is interesting that the Gemara does not seem to have an issue with the borrower’s somewhat deceitful motives. This would seem to be a violation of Geneivas Daas, misleading a person in order to achieve an inappropriate gain. Shulchan Aruch (CM 228:6) states:

אסור לרמות בני אדם במקח וממכר או לגנוב דעתם כגון אם יש מום במקחו צריך להודיעו ללוקח אף אם הוא עכו"ם לא ימכור לו בשר נבילה בחזקת שחוטה ואין לגנוב דעת הבריות בדברים שמרא' שעושה בשבילו ואינו עוש' אסור כיצד לא יסרהב (בחבירו) שיסעוד עמו והוא יודע שאינו סועד ולא ירבה לו בתקרובת והוא יודע שאינו מקבל ולא יפתח חביות הפתוחות לחנוני וזה סובר שפתחם בשבילו אלא צריך להודיעו שלא פתחם בשבילו ואם הוא דבר דאיבעי ליה לאסוקי אדעתיה שאינו עושה בשבילו ומטעה עצמו שסובר שעושה בשבילו לכבודו כגון שפגע בחבירו בדרך וסבור זה שיצא לקראתו לכבדו אין צריך להודיעו:

One is prohibited from defrauding another in commerce or misleading them. For example, if the item has a defect, he must inform the buyer. Even if the buyer is a gentile, he cannot sell non-kosher meat with the presumption that it is kosher. One cannot mislead others with words by showing that he is doing some for him when he is not. How so? A person should not invite someone to eat with him where he knows he won’t come. He should not send a lot of gifts where he knows he will not accept. He should not open barrels that he is opening for a storekeeper and the other will assume he opened them for him. Rather, he must inform the other that he did not open for him. If it is something that the other should have realized was not being done for him, and he mislead himself by assuming it was done for his honor, such as where he meets someone on the street and assumes he came specifically to greet him, he would not have to inform the other.

In our case too, the person wants to appear wealthy so that lenders will extend him credit. But indeed he is not wealthy, and lenders might feel duped to know that his Bentley and Butler were just borrowed for the day that he filed his loan application. However, we must say that this mild deception is not forbidden because the issue is not whether he is wealthy or not. The issue is, does he have the ability and full intention to pay back the loan. 

We find an analogous situation in a teshuva of Rav Moshe Feinstein (YD II:61) regarding someone who became prematurely gray and wanted to dye his hair so he could still be competitive as an employee and avoid age discrimination. (We won’t discuss the issue regarding men dyeing hair in terms of li tilbash, although Rav Moshe speaks of that as well.) Rav Moshe permits it so long as the person is sure that he is able to work just as well as someone who would appear the age he is portraying. Not everybody agrees with this ruling. For example, Rav Yaakov Yechiel Weinberg (Seridei Eish II:41) rules that this would be an unfair deception. However, he cleverly advises that he should simply disclose his age. The idea being, once the person knows his true age, they will draw their own conclusions about his vigor and reliability.

Rav Moshe must have held that it does not matter that he is fooling him regarding his apparent age because that is non-material, so long as he knows himself able to do the job that he is bidding for. It would seem that our Gemara is a proof to Rav Moshe’s position.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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