Something in my soul jibes at being cheated. It first came to my notice as a young teenager that people would try and put one over you if they could, and you let them. I'd saved my paper round earnings to buy a bike from a lad down the road. It wasn't a fantastic bike, it only had 3 gears, but it was a lot better than the one I had before. I negotiated a price with him, and once I'd saved enough money I went to buy the bike.
As I rode away from his house I noticed something wrong; I couldn't change gear. It soon became apparent that I'd been cheated; that he'd swapped the rear wheel. I turned round and pedalled back to his house my temperature rising a point for every yard cycled.
He was waiting for me with a grin on his face. He told me I'd bought the bike sold as seen and it wasn't his fault if I didn't check before I handed over the money. All very true, but it wasn't in the same condition as when I'd checked it over a month before when I agreed to buy it.
After a short period of negotiation, which consisted of me hitting him, he agreed to put the original wheel back on. I cycled happily away for the second time on my new bike having learnt a valuable lesson.
