An Interview with the First Person to Ever Fall for the Oldest Trick in the Book

3200 BCE

MESOPOTAMIA – Thomas Gully, a twenty-three year old farmer in Mesopotamia, was recently tricked into giving away a sheep and receiving nothing in return. He described the experience as “chastening,” saying, “This guy promised me a cow in exchange for my sheep. He said he’d give me the cow after I gave him a sheep, and I believed him, so I gave him ol’ Betty. He just took my damn sheep and left. Looking back, it seems so obvious, like why has nobody thought to do this before?”

Since falling for the first scam ever, Gully has tried to use the tactic on other unsuspecting farmers, but with little success. “Somehow it’s as if they can all see right through me,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” Gully admitted that he wasn’t all that great at lying yet, due to lack of experience. “I mean, up until about a month ago, I wasn’t even aware that that was something you could do,” he remarked. “I just kind of assumed that if you said something, you had to mean it. But, well, you know what they say about assuming.” After this interview was completed, Gully requested a husk of corn from the Dealer as payment. You can guess how that went.