Monday, April 16, 2007

No Honor Among Thieves

Disappointed to report that due to my lack of lying, we won't be getting a full settlement for the burglary. Both The Wife and T. said to just report anything missing as owned by us, not T. When it came down to brass tacks, I couldn't pull off the lie, and boom -- some of T's items weren't covered. Since he's not a relative staying in the house, his items aren't covered.

I'll get over it in a few more minutes but I do get frustrated at how not lying has hurt us as a family.

When The Wife had to claim personal bankruptcy over signing for business debts her (our, long story) electrical contracting company had, we could have thrown all our debts into that pile -- pretty much everything. Did we? No -- because we were using the bankruptcy as we viewed it was intended for, business dept. Something to help encourage people to be entrepreneurial and take risks in the business world.

Did this decision help her credit rating? No. Did the credit cards companies (who never received one late payment, never had any debt removed from their card balances) treat her as a normal customer? No. They either dropped her as soon as that card was paid off, while reducing her spending limits as the balances reduced -- or treated her as a second-class citizen. Despite the fact that the bankruptcy claim didn't affect them whatsoever.

I'm already losing steam over the lack of payment from the insurance company; some money back is better than no money back.

Why hadn't I just had the gonads to lie, though, dammit.

Hell -- I should have just made up stuff that wasn't stolen. Lots of my friends joked about it -- but in reality, how many people in our situation would have done that? I could have added fly rods and reels and knives, more jewelry, replaced my cruddy TI calculator... tons of stuff.

In the end, does The System even register a little personal ethical burp like that in the face of the horrendous white collar crime going on? Well, no, it doesn't. But, my conscience would; so I guess I get to stop bitching now.

8 comments:

Iciyapi Tate said...

Brandon, i have to agree with you, I think lying would not have been good, in the grand scheme of thinkgs just becasue others do it does not make it right...
I am sorry that T does not get cash for his stuff. But you will not have to feel crap for lying.
love to you all
Tate

Unknown said...

I so would have lied, but you are obviously a better person than me for it.

Stingite said...

Sucks about the money. Are you guys giving T. some of the compensation you received? Like divvying it up or something? That's got to be a little touchy . . .

So outside of the money, is there a new layer of meaning in the house these days? What's that like? Any smudging going on or anything?

Shocho said...

You did the right thing. It's hard to see now. If you did the wrong thing, you'd think about it for years on down the road. Well done, sir.

Bpaul said...

A new face on comments sheets, Howdy Joe!

Oh, the money is going to be divided very evenly. Meaning, adding up the real value of all T.'s stuff, adding up the real value of all our stuff, make a percentage (or even simpler math, easier for my head -- a proportion) and then he gets his percentage of whatever money we receive according to the real value proportion.

Wow I just woke up and that didn't come out well. Some day I'll learn not to post first thing upon awakening LOL. Bah I'll leave it.

We smudged right away of course. But we also are taking small but significant security-minded steps. We're not going to get all crazy, but neither are we going to be passive and dumb about it. Some bigger changes need time and money, smaller ones will be implemented right away.

Thanks for the concern,

BP

Stingite said...

*thanks for placing your order for urban bear traps and the 7' rolls of sticky tape*

Bpaul said...

The razorwire is on backorder.

We're not over-reacting, just being mellow, ya know.

Anonymous said...

The bottom line is "what is YOUR price?" Some people sell off for $100. Its nice to reaffirm to yorself that you aren't cheap.