The Butler's DilemmaSaturday, April 14, 2007
this is basically a rip-off from
The Dilbert Blog.For the sake of convenience, I'll paste it here:
"Let’s say you’re the butler to a billionaire who lives alone. The billionaire dies in his sleep. You know he owns a large piece of jewelry that no one else has seen, and you have access to it.
If you steal the piece of jewelry, sell it, and give the money to an African charity, you can feed an entire village for a year. The village would otherwise starve. If you don’t steal the jewelry, it will go to his surviving family who has so much money they won’t care about it.
Obviously it is illegal to steal the jewelry and feed the starving village in Africa. But do you have a moral obligation to commit the crime for the greater good?
And if so, do you likewise have a moral obligation to steal anything else you can get your hands, from dead billionaires or living neighbors, if you can use the stolen property for the greater good?"
Interesting Answers:
1. moral obligation is a oxymoron.
2. the billionaire is dead, the Africans are living, and life is for the living.
3. corruption is rampant in Africa.
4. steal the gem and exchange it for money (to feed the village). then steal the gem back.
5. give a man a fish, and he would last for a day. teach a man how to fish, and he would last forever. why don't steal the gem and invest?
6. ask robin hood, and he would give you a satisfying answer.
ULTIMATE:
he steals the gem and finds out the next day, that the billionaire willed it to him for his loyalthy and good service.
