Your company does work for a government-run enterprise. While waiting to be paid, the country suffers a massive earthquake. The enterprise is damaged but continues to run. Should the debt be paid or should the company write it off without any expectation of payment? The company is not a charitable organization.

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Let me assume that the terms on which the company performed the work were fair and that the company actually delivered the work fully as agreed. In this case the company is really in the same position as other companies which are owed nothing by the country in question and perhaps never did business there. It would be a good thing for any well-off company or individual to make some contribution to the reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged country. But the company that is owed the debt has no stronger moral reason to contribute. (It may have a stronger prudential reason, if the money is costly to reclaim or efforts to reclaim it would generate negative publicity. But this is a different matter.)

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