I have thought a great deal about why the greedy so often destroy themselves at exactly this moment — the moment of showing off — and I have decided it is because greed and vanity are the same appetite wearing two coats.

The person who steals because they believe they deserve more than they have is the same person who cannot resist being admired for how cleverly they took it.

I have seen it again and again: the caretaker who keeps meticulous records of a theft because some part of her is proud of the work; the son who explains, unprompted, the elaborate structure of his fraud to the one relative asking questions, because he cannot bear for his cleverness to go unwitnessed.

Julian could have simply told me to leave.