On the Road

If you’re thinking of pulling a travel insurance or a traveller cheques scam, it’s a good idea to ask yourself if you were born to be a fraudster. If you’re a spiritual person you might ask yourself whether the Buddha would have approved of your ‘right livelihood’ that you’ve chosen. That was part of the way to Enlightenment that he preached, after all.

If you’re not into burning incense sticks and chanting, the existential question is still important. Never mind who you’re taking the money from, you’re choosing to make a living as a scammer, accepting fraud and lies into your life to make a profit. The line that you draw for honest conduct gets blurred and it’s easy to find yourself down that infamous slippery slope.

You can choose to rationalise it as ‘liberating’ money from the multinational demons but that would only work if you were giving all the money you’ve scammed away to a noble cause. The fact is that you ought to be ready to write ‘small-time thief’ on your resume if you engage in this kind of thing. Either way you look at it, it’s iffy karma.

Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, however and you’d hardly be blamed for scamming American Express blind in order to pay for a kidney operation. Either way, it’s up to the individual traveller to draw the line. Just be aware that there is one.

Want to meet other road junkies?
Come to the Road Junky Sahara Retreat Feb 6-11 2012 to hang out with 30 other travelers to meditate, make yoga, tell stories and dance under the full moon in the desert.

Follow Road Junky on Twitter for live updates @roadjunky

Back to Top - More On the Road Articles - Print this page