For reasons too complicated and essentially boring to explain, I was once ended up working at what I referred to as “Betty’s Sweat Shop.” It was a rough time in the industry; so, I was stuck and as long as I was frugal could almost meet my basic living expenses. I made the best of it and several of the clients of the company appreciated working with someone that knew what they were doing. One of those clients was Bob.
Bob and his wife Rose were self-employed and had been eking out a living for some time. To anyone that would listen, Rose complained that for ten years the keys on her typewriter would stick and Bob refused to buy a new one. IOW, Bob was somewhat known for being cheap.
When the holiday season rolled around, I received an envelope marked personal and confidential from Bob. Nothing odd at that time of year as many clients sent us Christmas cards with such a notation on the envelope so the mail room wouldn’t open them. Except as Bob was Jewish, it surprised me that he would send any holiday greeting but I was touched.
There was an unexpected surprise, and burden, that came with the greeting. A personal check for $50 was tucked in it. At the time, employees could accept nominal gifts with a value less than $25 from clients but never cash gifts. In this instance, there was zero chance that anyone in the office would ever have known about that check. I was also completly clear to me that there was also no quid pro quo attached to the gift. And I could have really used the money.
I also immediately knew that I couldn’t accept it. Not because I doubted the spirit in which it had been given by Bob and Rose. I could easily, and probably correctly, have rationalized that such a small amount of money wouldn’t cause me to be less objective about whatever business that Bob submitted in the future, but that’s not how the unconscious aspects of the human brain operates.
Everybody has a price and several years after the above incident, I semi-seriously entertained selling out. All I had to do was offer a “too big to fail” bank my services as an expert witness in a billion dollar lawsuit. The plaintiffs had been greedy and stupid, ignoring all their professional standards. IMO, they did deserve to lose. OTOH, what the bank did was sleazy and resulted in parties unrelated to the lawsuit to lose a lot of money; so, they too deserved to lose. IOW there were no good guys. (Both sides ended up getting the willies in the middle of the trial and split the loss 50/50.)
Poor but honest is easier to live with than wealthy and powerful but corrupt (or a hitman).
“Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.”
― Harry S. Truman