Strangers with Candy

This Halloween, we actually lived in a neighborhood that contains children. I'm not a huge fan of kids, but in the spirit of the holiday I wanted us to distribute candy. So I bought five big bags, dumped them into a big bowl, and waited by the door.

Now keep in mind that because this is Indiana in November, it was already pitch-black outside, and to top it off it was raining. Because of this situation, most of the trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood were being driven from house to house by their parents, plus most were wearing plastic rain ponchos and carrying umbrellas, so it was really tough to tell what anyone was. (This was actually okay with me, because it saved me from having to make a comment about how cute their costumes were. I never know what to say in those types of situations!)

My first customer was this drenched little bumblebee. I offered the bowl to him and said he could pick his own candy. He got this really excited look on his face and grabbed a Butterfinger. I didn't realize getting the liberty to choose your own candy was so rare...and apparently word got around. The kids were ecstatic at the prospect of actually picking out stuff they liked, as opposed to getting stuck with mini granola bars, circus peanuts, raisins, or other objectionable items.

Then a group of about six kids, obviously all related, landed on the doorstep.

They were ready for me.

The oldest one, a girl, marched up to the bowl, grabbed a candy bar, and said, "Can I have two? My great-grandma couldn't come with us, so I'm collecting for her, too."

At this point, I figured I had three options:

1) act all establishment and enforce the one-piece-per-kid rule;

2) try to expose the scam by asking a series of tough questions about this great-grandma;

3) let her have it, and see how far they'd try to take the scam.

So I went with #3. I figured it was a good experiment in human behavior. After all, isn't it human nature to, when a fellow human being is giving you something for free, try to talk that person into giving you another one for free?

One of the kids in her group who'd timidly taken one Blow Pop from the bowl right before his sister immediately spun around and came back. "I need one for my great-grandma, too," he said, grabbing a Hershey bar.

Another one charged forward. "My brother's sick and I'm trick-or-treating for him, so I get four, right? Because we each get one for our great-grandma, too?"

Now, I'd had my doubts about Great-Grandma before...but now I was pretty sure she either didn't exist, or lived in a whole other state and had no idea she was being used in this way.

Due to my curiosity about how the human mind works, I ended up having to dip into my husband's peanut-butter-cup stash to serve the last two trick-or-treaters.

Next year, I think it would be fun to give out ONLY those orange circus peanuts. Now THAT's an experiment.