Is It Ok to Lie or Cheat?

Is it ok to lie, steal, or cheat?

When I read the assignment on writing a paper on lying, cheating and stealing, I had a little trouble identifying with this problem. I couldn't decide to write about this kind of problem in my life or to write a paper reviewing what I learned from reading the chapter.

After thinking about it for a few days I found myself remembering the teachings of my family. I come from a merchant family, my father leading and teaching my brothers, sisters and me the importance of honesty and truth. My father was the most honest person in my life. He taught me about Karma from the teachings of Buddhism. Buddhism teaches the belief that if you do something wrong or bad on purpose, then someday, that wrong or bad thing will come back to me in some way. My parents would say that not only would lying or stealing hurt me, that it would also ruin our families reputation.

A few years after graduating from college, a long time close friend asked me if I wanted to join her in a business of selling decorative paper products. I was interested in the idea but due to being a mother of a 7 month old, I was not able to be at the business space much of the time. Our business would open early in the morning but I could not arrive until late afternoon. We rented a space at the weekend market, selling to all people. I was a 50% investor and since I could not get there early in the morning, I would process the receipts at the end of each weekend. I didn't know how much money I should be making, only that the agreement was that we would split everything 50/50. I felt that he money we made was ok but she was very happy with the business.

After one year in business, I found a closer supplier, a local distributor of the decorative paper and I began buying. Now, since I was seeing the inventory first hand as we purchased it, I began to see a pattern that the sales receipts that she would turn in with the cash at the end of the weekend did not match the inventory remaining. For months, I carefully watched the receipts, the inventory, and what she was giving me as my half of the business profits. After realizing that she was selling paper from the inventory and not reporting the sales in the receipts, or the profits, I knew that my long- time friend and trusted business partner was not being honest. Sadly, I soon told her that I wanted to end my partnership. I took my 50% investment and never told her why I wanted to quit the business.

As we have studied in this chapter, there are business practices that have evolved due to these kinds of behavior. In the business fraud triangle, I can now see that my trusted partner had two of the three elements, opportunity and rationalization.

Had I not found a closer supplier and began purchasing the inventory myself, I may not have seen the difference in the receipts and the inventory. This strategic change in who deals