I was stunned. I wasn’t naïve, but that was a lesson in human nature that was completely foreign to me and the way I was raised. These people had been friends and neighbors for twenty-five years, and for $1,000, they were willing to throw their neighbors under the bus. I ended up paying them the original price I offered. They could fool their neighbors, but I wasn’t going to. The idea that I was supposed to lie to the people next door—I would never do that. I’ve never forgotten that experience.
