The Chofetz Chaim's Pain Over the Seforim He Owned
Rav Kahaneman asked the Chofetz Chaim to lend him a sefer. He did not own it, he explained, and was already pained over the time spent paying for the seforim he did own.
Rav Kahaneman related that one time he and his chavrusa, Reb Elchonon, needed to research an item in an obscure sefer. They noticed that the Chofetz Chaim quoted from that very sefer in his work, the Mishna Berura. They approached the Chofetz Chaim and asked to borrow the sefer. The Chofetz Chaim responded that he didn’t own the sefer in question. He explained that when he needed to use the sefer he would borrow it from the library of the Reb Yaakov Brevda in Warsaw. (The Chofetz Chaim, in one of his introductions, specifically thanks Reb Yaakov for the use of his library.) The Chofetz Chaim realized that his visitors were somewhat perplexed as to why he didn’t just buy the sefer as it appeared that he used it enough to warrant its purchase. The Chofetz Chaim then gazed upon the seforim that were in his room and turned to his visitors and said, “These seforim are more than enough. Why should I be concerned about seforim which I don’t have? I am already pained about the seforim which I actually own!”