When is it OK to have a "mental reservation?"

[trillium]

Aside from the obvious (saving somebody’s life or reputation) when is it ok to be evasive or have a mental reservation? Particularly what I have in mind is what if it will make money?

 

[tuopaolo]

I think it’s OK as long as the person whom you are talking to doesn’t have a right to the knowledge you are hiding.

 

[Pug]

Well, there are a lot of ways to make money with mental reservation or evasion. You could be selling a used car to a slightly retarded person, you could be fielding complaints in the complaint booth at a department store (making money by salary), you could be a mechanic required by the boss to always replace the air filter no matter what, etc. You could have in mind a bunch of stuff.

I don’t really care what the used car buyer has a right to know or not. I still wouldn’t be anything but straight with a less than sharp buyer, if I would sell at all. I doubt I would tell the sharp buyer that it would be a better deal to buy from someone else, but neither would I embark upon a mental reservation.

Surely you are not talking about making money off a “mark”, are you? That would be wrong. I *seriously *doubt you meant this, I was just leery of not making it clear.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

If there’s a doubt, then doubt. Usually I find my first impressions to be my honest and reliable impressions. If I get that funny little feeling that I ought not to be there or doing something, then I go away.

 

[Steve_Andersen]

it is usually a good policy to tell the truth and nothing but the truth

but the whole truth?

well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad

especially in business where, while you should be truthful, you are under no obligation to do someone else’s homework for them

 

[trillium]

Thanks guys!

 

[chevalier]

“Mental reservation” is mostly used to denote thinking something else than you are saying, which is practically always wrong. Withholding the truth may have legitimate reasons. Cheating someone for material gain surely isn’t one of those. However, people don’t always have the right to know the information they are requesting and flat out refusal to answer doesn’t always do the job, so the sole fact that some business is involved doesn’t necessarily make it wrong. But I would be extremely careful in all instances when incomplete information and money are involved in the same scenario.