Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Haggling Over the Price

There is a story about a conversation between Mark Twain and a wealthy woman at a party. The woman makes a comment along the lines of how she figures she would do just about anything for a million dollars. Mark Twain then asks if she would sleep with him for a hundred dollars. “What kind of woman do you think I am?” she replies indignantly. With his usual wit, Mark Twain responds: “We’ve already determined what kind of woman you are, ma’am. Now we are just haggling over the price.

I was recently reminded of this story while pumping gas in a suburb. From having lived in the city for so long we have gotten use to pre-paying for our gas- crime is high in the inner-city, you know, so the stations are afraid (perhaps justifiably) of gas-n-go’s. However, we have rarely prepaid in the nicer suburbs. No criminals there! And then last week I tried to pump my gas in South County without prepaying…I’m sorry, you need to come inside and pay first, or at least swipe a card. Hmm.

Are all my ghetto friends driving out to the suburbs to steal more expensive gas? I doubt it. I think gas prices have proven Mark Twain’s point once again. Criminality is not a question of geography, but of finding the right price.

3 comments:

Ron Obvious said...

Hmm, sounds judgmental, then again maybe not. Corrie Ten Boom had this problem of stealing to survive when the Nazi's invaded Holland only to find herself 'haggling'. She further haggled over lying about Jews in the attic. She knew lying and stealing were wrong under Law, but it's a good thing she was under Grace.

Travels said...

Not meaning to be contrarian or anything, but even under the law, there are contingencies built in for breaking it... such as saving people's lives and feeding them when they are being starved. So a measure of grace was built into the law! So that makes it grace in law under grace? K

Travels said...

Not meaning to be contrarian or anything, but even under the law, there are contingencies built in for breaking it... such as saving people's lives and feeding them when they are being starved. So a measure of grace was built into the law! K