One day when I was in high school, my friend Mike came up to me and asked if he could borrow some money. I think it was four dollars. I liked Mike and everything, and I was able to spare the money, but I was thinking that he may not take his part of the deal seriously enough. That is to say, I figured that I would never see those four dollars again. But I wanted to loan him the money and I wanted the money back.

So I came up with an agreement that I wrote out on paper, and he eagerly signed ( he really needed the money, for like, "Dead" tickets or something.) We agreed that if Mike didn't pay me back in full within one month, he would surrender all rights granted him by the United States Constitution and become my indentured servant.

This was a tremendous deal for me, and I would occasionally allow my thoughts to wander to how I could use Mike's time and energy to my personal benefit. During school, we often ran into each other, but the look in Mike's eye had changed from casual friendliness to fear and determination. Three weeks went by.

I was leaving school one day with four days left in the agreement when Mike came running towards me at break-neck speed. I knew it was over. I also learned something about myself and my ability to become corrupted when I observed that my first instinct when I saw Mike run towards me was to run in the opposite direction. With mutual respect, he handed me the money, and I handed him the contract. He tore it into many, many pieces and threw it in the air, laughing a mad scientist type laugh, and went off skipping and dancing in the opposite direction.

Today, I have serious questions about the legality of the contract, but I figure I could have gotten away with it for a couple of days.