Q: I am a prosecutor. As part of any case, we demand that the defendant pay restitution to the victim. Recently a disgruntled employee stole instant-lottery games from her employer, a local grocery store, and a few of those tickets were winners. She must repay the grocer the face value of the stolen tickets. But who should get her winnings? The defendant? The state lottery system? The person who bought the first tickets after the theft? — Andrew Bonavia, Ithaca, N.Y.
A: The defendant may not keep the prize money; it is an ill-gotten gain that should be returned to its source, the New York lottery. If you win a contest dishonestly — and stealing lottery tickets is certainly dishonest — you should be ineligible for victory.
Even if you could identify the person in line behind the thief who might have bought the winning tickets, it’s tough to see her as a victim. She made a free choice to purchase the ticket she actually acquired — no fraud, no pressure, except for the state’s incessant advertising of these lotteries (a mug’s game if ever there was one, separating the poor and misguided from their money, but that’s a different question).
Q: Minutes before my first lunch date with a man I met online, he called to cancel because he was hit by a bicycle and was in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. I later called the ER to check on him, and a nurse said he was never there. Weeks after that, I heard about another woman with whom he used the same excuse: hit by a bike; in the ER. Is there an obligation to be honest even online? — Beth Rose Feuerstein, Long Beach, N.Y.
A: While there is scant expectation of integrity in online dating, the obligation of honesty persists. As does the duty not to be a goofball: Can this guy not simply cancel? Must he concoct so baroque a lie, so easily exploded? Has he no professional pride?
From my narrow, crackpot’s point of view (my favorite), the real harm here is not to you but to New York City cyclists. This fellow promulgates the canard of the pedestrian-threatening bicycle. Average number of pedestrian deaths attributable to cyclists each year here? About one. Yet in 2006 alone, cars killed 156 pedestrians (and 17 bicyclists) in New York City and sent more than 2,800 bicyclists to hospitals.
Some of the dead and wounded might have been men you could date, gents who would not invent ludicrous excuses but would stand you up honestly.
Send questions and comments for Randy Cohen to Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111, or ethicist@nytimes.com.
