Two slick con men boarded a train that runs between New York and Boston and singled out a prosperous-looking man. Sitting down next to him, they invited him to join them in a game of cards. It wasn’t long until the unsuspecting victim owed one of the other players several hundred dollars.

The winner agreed to take a check, but once he had it in his hands he acted conscience-stricken and tore it up. “I never thought you’d lose so much money,” he said. “Let’s call the whole thing off.” Impressed with his apparent generosity, the loser insisted on writing out a new check.

Later, when he received his bank statement, he discovered that both checks had been cashed. The crook had apparently slipped the first one into his pocket and torn up a blank one instead. His seeming generosity was a clever scheme of deception.

We would all agree that such deception is despicable. Yet we have to admit that we all have a tendency to be deceitful. We deceive by wearing a mask of flattery, winking at wrong, or saying we are just trying to be diplomatic, but we are really following the example of the devil, the father of lies (Jn. 8:44).

Lord, help us always to be truthful.

  — Henry G. Bosch