The O.P. has a point, though. If the proprietor is very sick, then someone should have returned the O.P.'s rifles. But his having paid in advance, puts them between a rock and a hard place. Now, they probably will need to do the jobs, for which they already have been paid. Prayers here, for that proprietor's recovery.
What hasn't been said, is whether the O.P. was pressured to pay in advance. Accidents and sicknesses are the bane for many smaller shops in every field, IMO. Its called "continuity" in business, for a reason. That shop owner has one job now. That's to fight the disease and recover from it. If everything else falls into disarray, for a time, then so be it. So for the present, he is "disabled".
Shipping out a "loaner" rifle, seems to be a honorable gesture, in the short term. I'm sure that the O.P. paid in advance with the best of intentions. But with that amount of coin on the table, I'd say that he "commissioned" this G.S. to undertake a project. These things can and will, occasionally, "Go South".
