So I had a weird turn of events when I did a deal on craigslist. I went to swap my Wii for a modded xbox360. The 360 works great, has no problems whatsoever, and the boy took very good care of it. His mom said he had it for about 2 years and really wanted a Wii. So I exchange my Wii for the 360 and am very happy. I come home, plug the 360 in and find out that they left a DVD inside of it. Four days later I went and gave it back to them and here is where the weird turn of events start.

The mom opens the door and takes the DVD from me. When I start to leave she tells me "hold on" in a really harsh tone. She then proceeds to hand me all of my Wii stuff back in a box. I'm thinking oh crap something happened on the trip over and now it isn't working. I asked her if this was the case and she flat out told me: "No it works perfectly well. I just don't want my son to be playing video games anymore. He has so much more to do with his life, and I don't want him to screw it up. I feel video games will do that to him." Now mind you she was pretty pissed off so I am guessing something went wrong. I asked if she wanted the Xbox back and that I would gladly return it at anytime! She told me "No just keep it. He doesn't need anything like this to distract him from school, and his extracurricular activities." I kept trying to barter so I could at least give her something, but she said she didn't want anything and that she was sorry for snapping at me. She then just said "I'm sorry for all of this, he just doesn't need any distractions. Have a good rest of your day!" She shuts the door and I walk to my car.

So now I have both a Wii and Xbox 360... My conscience is destroying me and I can't think of any way to repay her. Is there anything that I have overlooked or missed maybe? What do you guys think?

It's not your fault. Chances are if you didn't make the trade, she would have eventually disposed of the 360 herself, just as she was going to get rid of the Wii without you. I don't think this would be any different than if he had, say, broken the Wii. It's a shame that things turned out the way they did for the other guy, but you have no control over what happens in his home.

Obviously there is nothing to do, you got lucky.

There's not a whole lot you can do, I think. The kid obviously screwed up somehow and it's up to the parents on how to discipline him (to a certain extent). I'd consider it a lucky break.

The only thing I can say is that Christmas came early for you.

Mail a bunch of books to them? Classics, non-fiction, and suchlike should go down reasonably well.

Yeah, you've got nothing to have a guilty conscience over. I do feel sorry for that other kid though if she has just gotten rid of it so that he has no distractions from school. Everyone needs a bit of fun free time, otherwise you'll likely burn yourself out.
If you really feel that terrible, you could try to give him the cash equivalent of the sale.

What the hell is wrong with your conscience? Now you have a modded 360 and a Wii. It was entirely her choice to give you both of them, and even insisted you keep them when you offered to give her something else in return. Your conscience should be clear already.

Give it to me, problem solved.

I feel that I got a little too lucky. But I guess I just need to let it go. It has been pretty friggin hard, and I did lose sleep over it last night. Blah... I should send them a card...


The xbox or the Wii? I am more willing to give up the Wii than the xbox. If I get something in return.

Every now and then good things randomly come our way, and vice versa.

Do not feel guilt over this.
Something is wrong within that family, and apparently has been since before you ever made a deal with them in good faith.
The fault is not yours.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I did not see it that way. Thanks!

Could be anything. Maybe Mom ran out of gin. Maybe the preacher did a sermon on the evils of video games. Not your problem. Take the luck and run. Life throws enough crap at you, learn to take the good stuff and be grateful.

Ya I get that. But this is where I am coming from:

If I get used to doing that, then people could look at me as being only for myself and really not looking out for others. I have always strived to be a person who wants to think of others, and I feel that if I don't keep doing that, I will fall into a habit of only thinking for myself. It is a very deep philosophical problem I have.

Good god man, what's gonna happen to you when you actually do something bad?

How much is a second hand Wii? Perhaps go the old-fashioned Tithe route, and give 10% of that value to charity.

Maybe it was the game you gave back to him? What game was it? Maybe the mom didn't want him playing whatever game you were going to give back? It could be anything. But either way, it's not your fault, you had no way of knowing. Also, you got an xbox AND a wii!

Honestly its nice that you thought of them, but it was an honest trade, if the mother made a decision after the fact, then you did nothing incorrect, its a personal decision she made for her child, and beyond your control, it'll pass but generally everything you did was in good faith.

In the original Deal:
Did you originally deal in good faith?
Did you arrange a fair deal?

When these events began:
Did you try in earnest to keep the deal fair between both parties?
Did you try and make reparations of some form?

If your answer to these 4 questions are all yes, unless you secretly wanted both and feel that may have limited how much you strove to give something back, then your conscience is clear. It's only if you could have done more, or looked for a way to turn this to your advantage that you should have a muddy conscience.

Who did you hurt? Answer: no-one. So don't worry about it. It is not your job to get involved in their family drama.

Don't worry about it there's nothing to feel guilty about and now you own both X-box and a Wii.