The 48 Laws Of Power

ofRernsen

County,

Oklahoma,

wasnotthekind

ofmanto

acceptbeing

connedout
of

$10,000,

andone

morning

hetracked

Lustig

downtoahotel

in

Chicago.

Lustig

heardaknockonthedoor.Whenhe

opened

ithewas

looking

down

thebarrelofa

gun.

“Whatseemstobethe

problem?”

he

calmly

asked.

“Yousonofa

bitch,”

yelled

the

sheriff,

“I’m

going

tokill

you.

You

connedmewiththatdamnboxof

yours!”Lustigfeigned

confusion.“You

meanit’snot

working?”

heasked.“Youknowit’s

not

working,”replied

the

sheriff.“Butthat’s

impossible,”

said

Lustig.

“There’sno

way

itcouldn’tbe

working.

Did

youoperate

it

properly?”

“Idid

exactly

what

you

toldmeto

do,”

saidthesheriff.

“No,

you

musthavedone

somethingwrong,”

said

Lustig.

The

argument

went

incircles.Thebarrel

ofthe

gun

was

gently

low-

cred.

Lustig

nextwentto

phase

twointhe

argument

tactic:He

poured

outa

wholebunchoftechnical

gobbledygook

abouttheborfis

operation,

com-

pletelybeguiling

the

sheriff,

whonow

appeared

lesssureofhimselfandar-

gued

less

forcefully.

“Look,”

said

Lusfig,

“I’ll

giveyouyourmoney

back

right

now.I’llalso

giveyou

writteninstruclions

on

howtoworkthema-

chineandI’llcomeouttoOklahomatomakesureit’s

working

properly.

There’sno

wayyou

canloseonthat.”Thesheriff

reluctantlyagreed.

To

satisfy

him

totally,Lustig

tookoutahundredone-hundred—dollar

bills

and

gave

them

to

him,

telling

himtorelaxandhave

afun

weekend

in

Chicago.

Calmerandalittle

confused,

thesheriff

finally

leftOverthenextfew

days

Lustig

checkedthe

papereverymorning.

He

finally

foundwhathewas

looking

for:Ashortarficle

reporting

SheriffRicha.rcls’s

arrest,

trial,

and

conviction

for

passing

counterfeitnotes.

Lustig

hadwonthe

argument;

the

sheriffneverbotheredhim

again.

LAWS)

;

7..