Short Fiction · Chapter
Conscience in Art explained
Jeff Peters recounts a scheme with his partner Andy Tucker to swindle a Pittsburgh millionaire by stealing his ivory carving and then selling it back to him, with Andy's elaborate ruse designed to satisfy Jeff's conscience.
What happens
Jeff Peters recounts a scheme with his partner Andy Tucker to swindle a Pittsburgh millionaire by stealing his ivory carving and then selling it back to him, with Andy's elaborate ruse designed to satisfy Jeff's conscience.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
The entire scheme is built on deception: Andy steals the carving, fabricates a story about a duplicate, and Jeff poses as a professor to sell it back.
Crime and Consequence
The theft and fraud are central to the plot, though the perpetrators escape without immediate consequence, highlighting the theme of crime without punishment.
Humor and Irony
The irony of Jeff's 'conscience' being satisfied by a lie, and the humorous portrayal of the millionaire's gullibility and the con artists' cleverness.
Characters to notice
- Jeff Peters
Narrator of the story; expresses a preference for legitimate swindling and a conscience that requires giving something tangible for money.
- Andy Donovan
Jeff's partner; devises the fraudulent scheme involving the ivory carving, showing his imaginative and unscrupulous nature.
- Unknown Narrator
The listener to whom Jeff tells the story.
Key passages
“I never could hold my partner, Andy Tucker, down to legitimate ethics of pure swindling.”
Jeff says he could never keep Andy from straying into dishonest schemes.
Jeff establishes his own moral code and Andy's lack of it.
“When I take money I want to leave some tangible object in the other fellow's hands for him to gaze at and to distract his attention from my spoor.”
Jeff insists on giving the victim something physical in exchange for their money.
Highlights Jeff's peculiar conscience and his approach to swindling.
“It was his own. When I was looking at his curios yesterday he stepped out of the room for a moment and I pocketed it.”
Andy reveals that the carving they sold was actually the one he stole from Scudder.
The twist that reveals the full extent of the deception.