A Delhi businessman turned up at a hospital complaining that he had swallowed a metal bottle cap. What the doctors found on opening him up were 12 gold nuggets, each weighing 33 grams, in his intestines. The value of the gold was 16000 pounds or 25,000 dollars. He had smuggled the gold out of Singapore and had hoped laxatives would help him recover it. They failed.

Epicurus would have a field day with this! Firstly, it is immoderate. Secondly, greed itself makes you unhappy, and this is a stellar instance of the principle. Thirdly, it is stupid – the hospital visit will account for any profit he has made, and if it weren’t in India (there are presumably ways of avoiding fines and imprisonment there if you are that rich and a crook), he would be in gaol. Epicurus he say,”Live modestly, have fun, don’t break the law!”