The roommate had two suits. Jonathan had none. The roommate — poor by any measure that mattered economically — didn’t hesitate. He gave one away. Not the older one, not the spare, not the almost-ready-to-retire one. He gave the better suit to someone who needed it.
This is not a parable. This is what Jonathan Jones watched happen in front of him when he was young, and it is the operating principle behind the cooperative’s charitable architecture. The 60/20/10/10 surplus allocation — where cooperative profits are distributed with charitable giving locked in — is the Two Suits doctrine expressed in a corporate operating agreement.
You don’t wait until you have enough to give. You give from what you have. The poor roommate understood something that billion-dollar philanthropists often miss: the gift has to cost you something, or it isn’t a gift. It’s a tax write-off.
“I will not offer that which cost me nothing.” — King David (2 Samuel 24:24). The roommate already knew.