A gift is a completely different issue. The old rich lady was not endeavoring to give anyone a gift as far as I can tell.
A $19 Chia pet for 10 cents is quite different....first, the dollar amount is insignificant to even a person living at poverty levels. Second, it is reasonable in an open market situation that the person selling a secondhand Chia pet might only get 10 cents. Not so for a $1000 Purdey.
High and mighty? No, just half-assed honest. In real life? I'll give you an example - I bought a load of used but good 426 Hemi parts in 1997 from a widow in Chicago. She did not know what they were worth and asked me for my opinion. My opinion, based on the market which I was well aware of, was $5000. I told her so. Sh was overjoyed and told me she would be glad to get $4000 to give me a break for being honest. We wound up splitting the difference and she had $4500 in her hand. There is no doubt I could have lied and told her $1000 and she would have taken it. I knew that then and I know it now.
I have a view of life....someday, the guy who goes through life looking to take every advantage he can - the opportunist - will be sitting on a doctor's table, far too young to have stomach cancer. He'll be listening in a most perplexed manner as the doctor tells him he has stomach cancer but good. What goes around comes around.
