[praptak]

> someone would have taken them, whether or not it was this businessman.

Gimme a break - "someone else would have done that"? Is there really an ethics system that would score this above "shitty excuse"?

[sliverstorm]

Well, there's always the famous inverse example:

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone

i.e., it was not ethical because no one else would make the step either.