To be caught with too much

An interesting Character in CS Lewis' life was his butler. The man was greatly concerned about being caught with too much sugar at the end of times.

The butler would often go the the store and instead of buying a full bag of sugar instead split a half bag of sugar with another customer. This of course put Lewis an awkward position since he was entertaining too many guests.

This is sort of an interesting antidote and most commentators use it as a funny illustration. I actually thing there is something interesting in the trait.

The interesting feature is two fold:

1. The end of times can come at any moment. Even if the end times for earth are far away each man has an end time of an unknown time that could end at any moment.

2. There are material possessions that one might be embarrassed about upon entering heaven. I doubt a bag of sugar is on of them, but an extravagant car, an over sized house, an antique of excessive value all of these things may contain moral consequences in a world such as ours.

I think Lewis did see something interesting in his Butler as the character Puddleglum was created off the butler. Amongst Puddlegulms pessimistic and gloomy sayings are some truly wise sayings.