Once two young fellows were working on a tea plantation in the hills. They had to fetch the mail from a good way off so they got it at rather long intervals. One of them, let us call him John, used to get a lot of letters by every mail, but the other, Brown, never got one. He used to watch Adams enviously as the latter took his packet and started to read. Brown was eager to have just one letter, and once, when they were expecting the mail, an idea came into his head. He offered John to pay five pounds if John let him have one of his. John agreed and when the mail came in he handed Brown his letters. Brown looked over the letters, chose one and returned the rest.
In the evening John joined Brown for a whisky and soda and, eagerto find out about the letter, broke the silence and asked what the letter was about. To John surprise Brown stood on his rights and refused to say anything about the letter he had bought. As the weeks went by he continued to refuse. At last John made up his mind to talk the matter over with Brown once again. One day he followed Brown into his office, offered the five pounds and asked for his letter. However, Brown said that it was against his principle to return the letter. He added that he had bought and paid for the letter and meant to keep it.