Wanna Buy The Brooklyn Bridge?

After reading this story (on wikipedia here, and also see another source here), I felt it had value to share with you… ) As the Torah teaches us, there is something to be learned from everyone… and in this case, I’ll let you decide in the comments what the lessons we can learn from the scoundrel are!

Just as France recovered from World War I, Lustig was reading a newspaper.

An article discussed the problems of maintaining the Eiffel Tower. Even just keeping it painted was expensive, and the tower was becoming somewhat run-down. Lustig saw the possibilities behind this article and hatched a devious plan.

Lustig  invited six scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at a prestigious Paris hotel, to discuss a possible business deal.

There, Lustig introduced himself as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. He explained that they had been selected on the basis of their good reputations as honest businessmen, and then dropped his bombshell.

Lustig told the group that the upkeep on the Eiffel Tower was so outrageous that the city could not maintain it any longer, and wanted to sell it for scrap. Due to the certain public outcry, he went on, the matter was to be kept secret until all the details were thought out. Lustig said that he had been given the responsibility to select the dealer to carry out the task.

The idea was not as implausible in 1925 as it would be today. The Eiffel Tower had been built for the 1889 Paris Exposition, and was not intended to be permanent. It was to have been taken down in 1909 and moved somewhere else. It did not fit with the city’s other great monuments like the Gothic cathedrals or the Arc de Triomphe, and at the time, it really was in poor condition.

Lustig took the men to the tower in a rented limousine for an inspection tour. It gave Lustig the opportunity to gauge which of them was the most enthusiastic and gullible. Lustig asked for bids to be submitted the next day, and reminded them that the matter was a state secret.

He selected a scarp dealer named Poisson to be the victim of his scheme. However, Poisson’s wife was suspicious, wondering who this official was, why everything was so secret, and why everything was being done so quickly. To deal with her suspicions, Lustig arranged another meeting, and then “confessed”.

As a government minister, Lustig said, his government wage was not enough to enable him to live well, and needed to find ways to supplement his income.

Poisson understood immediately. He was dealing with a corrupt government official who wanted a bribe. That put Poisson’s mind at rest immediately, since he was familiar with the type and had no problems dealing with such people.

So Lustig not only received the “official”  funds for the purchase of the Eiffel Tower, he also collected a bribe as well (!) .

So, what do you think happened next?

Surprisingly, absolutely nothing. Poisson the scrap metal dealer was too humiliated at having been scammed to even complain to the police. Some time later, Lustig returned to Paris again, and (you guessed it!) selected six more scrap dealers, and tried to sell the Eiffel Tower once more. This time however, the chosen victim went to the police…

Which is why there was no third sale of the tower!

(Source: Wikipedia)

One amazing takeaway from this story is the fact that the deal was sealed by the fact that he asked for additional money as a bribe. Makes you wonder how many times, like when seeing a magic trick, the eye is trained to look at the wrong hand what the handkerchief “disappears”.