The holy Rizhiner zt’l told his chassidim the following story:

There was once a chassid who had many furs in his store and was having a hard time selling them. One morning, a messenger of a minister came into the store and said that he wants to buy all the furs. But the chassid hadn’t yet davened shacharis, and he didn’t want to sell them before shacharis. He didn’t want to begin explaining to the messenger that he doesn’t do business before shacharis, so he quoted an exorbitant price for the furs, assuming the messenger would leave. But when he stated the high price, the messenger was prepared to pay it. So, he raised the price even higher. The messenger said, “I see you don’t want to sell them” and left.

Generally, stories like this end with a miracle. The Rizhiner told his chassidim, “I see you are silent and waiting to hear the end of the story. But that is the end of the story. His mesirus nefesh to keep Halachah is the story that I wanted to tell you. He wasn’t thinking about what he will gain from this mesirus nefesh, and neither should you think about what you gain from your mesirus nefesh.”