Cheating

Cheating is an injustice most commonly associated with buying and selling. It is cheating to sell a thing at an exorbitantprice, and it is cheating to sell fraudulently by offering shamgoods for true, or by giving short measure. The worth of a thing,which determines the just price at which it should be sold, is not only the value of the thing in itself, but the value that it has tothe buyer or the seller.

If there is a substantial fault or flaw in goods sold,and the seller knows it and is silent, while the buyer does not discover it, the sale is unlawful, fraudulent, and unjust. Other fraudulent sales are those involving short weight or measure, and those of inferior goods sold as goods of superior quality. In cases such as these, the seller does wrong, and is bound to restitution.If, however, the seller is unaware of the fraudulent character ofhis sales, he does not sin, but, when he learns of the injury done,he must compensate the buyer. And if a buyer takes advantage of the ignorance or mistake of a salesman to get superior goods for the price of inferior goods, the buyer is bound to restitution.

If defects in goods salable are manifest (as, for instance, if a horse offered for sale has only one eye, or if apples on the market are spotted or small), the seller has no needto declare these defects. But when defects are hidden andundeclared, the sale of defective goods is fraudulent. St. Ambrosesays (De Offic. iii): “In all contracts, the defects of the salable commodity must be declared … otherwise, the contract is voided.”

For a tradesman to charge more for a thing than he himself paid for it, is not cheating. His work of trading confers a benefit; he puts needed or desirable goods at the command and convenience of the buyer. For this service he deserves justrecompense. But to make unreasonably great profit by overchargingis cheating.