Barney Panofsky is capable Jewish guy who could live according to the Torah, but chose to run his live on his own version. In this case, errors are inevitable: he could "take over gold that shone", it happened that he would "spit into the well", took lies for truth. Of course, life answered him in a smilar way. After all, what goes around – comes around. However, these costs can be attributed to such a concept as life experience. Maybe that's why when fate gave Barney what he really needed he already had a skill to recognize it and not to miss his happiness.