I have no idea and often trapped into the question of justice whenever the interest is in question. A poor can get no credit i.e. indeterminate discount has been applied to the credit and rich gets the cheapest credit. Poor seems to need it the most yet he/she can't score it. Middle class gets it with high interest rates and more than sufficient collateral held. While rich can get it without or very little of his/her own asset. Satapath Brahaman and Manu Smriti clearly allowed taking interest within certain limits and certain law. Little bit of finance and little bit of economics in my head seems to agree that the interest is the must on credit and poorer the quality of credit higher the interest rate must be. Why? Interest is the return and this includes premium for risk taken. Poor quality credit has higher chance of defaulting and thus the premium will be higher. What about the poor that is in need of money? First the principal and then the added higher rate of interest. ...