A good friend of mine asked me to help him sell his Bose Lifestyle 535 home theatre set as he travelled frequently and did not have the time to attend prospective buyers. Over the course of time, I had several enquiries for the set which narrowed down to four who wanted to see and test it out. One of them was Ted. Ted started communicating about his interest for the set. After days of haggling over price; we finally came to an acceptable verbal agreement, on which Ted made the appointment to come view the set.

Ted came over to my house last Friday morning. I usually do not invite total strangers over; f I have to meet them, it would be in a public place. It was just that the Lifestyle 535 had many components that made up the set and It was also very expensive; too. So, this was an exception. Also, Ted seemed like a pretty decent guy (at least over the phone he did), running his own business, etc. He came in a fairly new, white BMW X3.

After all the introductions, faces masked, social distancing observed, he proceeded to examine the condition of the set. He was quite happy with the set – he got it for a bargain considering the price he was paying for it. Then, when my back was turned for a few moments; I caught him from the corner of my eye quietly slipping a rare Megadeth cd collection set which I had on a table nearby; slipping in the box which the Bose console was in. I was selling this cd collection for RM850 / US$215. He did not ask me for it neither was it his intention to pay for it.

When I caught him out, he did not even apologise for attempting to flick it; giving some lame excuse that he did not have any cds as all music is on Sportify, life streaming, etc, so he wanted some cds to play with this set. He went on further to justify his action by saying that the pictures in my advertisement for the sale of this Lifestyle 535 had cds displayed. I did not post pictures with cds in them in my advert and he could not produce those pictures of mine that he saw. What a fib!

I doubt that Ted is a crook by nature. But his integrity is in question. A guy who is in his 60s, looks quite trendy, comes in a luxury vehicle, yet think it is all right to flick something that does not belong to him. This make it becomes a lot more difficult for me and for most people to welcome strangers to our homes. We will be cautious…for a while at least. Or the word here is “apprehensive” instead of cautious. All the same, I hope Ted has many, many enjoyable hours with his acquisition of The Bose Lifestyle 535 home theatre system.

Note: In this article; I am not attempting to be “English perfect” (an equivalent to “pitch perfect” in music terms). I had a bit of fun “composing” this article,