Myth-Ing Persons By Robert L Asprin

“Can it, Aahz. We can’t prove it. That’s the point. All right, Hay-ner. You’ve got us. Now what exactly have these characters done that we’re responsible for and what are our options? I thought one of the big sales points of the Bazaar was that there weren’t any rules here.”

“There aren’t many,” the Deveel said, “but the few that do exist are strictly enforced. The specific rule your friends broke involves fraud.” He quickly held up a hand to suppress my retort. “I know what you’re going to say. Fraud sounds like a silly charge with all the hard bargaining that goes on here at the Bazaar, but to us it’s a serious matter. While we pride ourselves in driving a hard bargain, once the deal is made you get the goods you were promised. Sometimes there are specific details omitted in describing the goods, but anything actually said is true. That is our reputation and the continued success of the Bazaar depends on that reputation being scrupulously maintained. If a trader or merchant sells something claiming it to be magical and it turns out to have no powers at all, that’s fraud … and if the perpetrators are allowed to go unpunished, it could mean the end of the Bazaar as we know it.”

“Actually,” I said dryly, “all I was going to do was protest you billing them as our friends, but I’ll let it go. What you haven’t mentioned is our options.”

Hay-ner shrugged. “There are only three, really. You can pay back the money they took falsely plus a twenty-five percent fine, accept permanent banishment from the Bazaar, or you can try to convince your fr-aahh, I mean the fugitives to return to the Bazaar to settle matters themselves.”