After work today, I attempted to help someone and in the process was conned out of some money. I suppose I should know better. I have a tendency to take people at face value and not think about the fact that I'm being dupped.

Without going into the details, it involved someone supposedly trying to get fuel for his diesel truck. Of course, there was some logic to his speil. But on closer examination, you can recognize the inconsistencies.

There is a part of me that is amazed at the ability of someone to fabricate and act out a tale designed to extract money. And I'm also amazed at my ability to be sucked into such a narrative.

After several years of putting up with DONALD, you would think I would be familiar with every conceivable variation of bamboozlement. DONALD was a master of manipulation. His stories, no matter how farfeched, always had a degree of plausibility to them. DONALD had an instinctive sense of what buttons to push and when. In retrospect, I regret that I did not shoot the little motherfucker.

I was trying to decide what I learned. Duplicity is impossible to avoid. And no doubt, most of us are capable of it at one level or the other. And sometimes, we don't have the resources to examine events. One unpleasant option is to be suspicious of everyone. At this point, the most I can do is to look more closely at the fleece of the sheep, there may be a human underneath.