a similar riddle to this has been here before but

[moof]

is this shorter version better or not ?

You live in a nice area and there is an empty lot beside your house that you would like to buy except the cash is a little tight.

A single person buys the house on the other side of the vacant lot and you find out they also purchased the vacant lot you were saving for.

Time passes and the new person becomes the bane of the area, late night loud parties, tons of visitors and their cars parked up and down the street all hours of the night and day.

You are out in your yard one day and bent down doing some landscaping when you overhear two of your other neighbors on the other side of your fence talking about the person causing everybody problems.

They say that's it's on for that night they are going to burn the person's house with the person in it and hope the person does not survive.

The neighbors go back inside and early the next morning you are awakened by sirens, the house of said person is engulfed in flames and as morning breaks the police announce the owner parished in the fire.

You now will be able to purchase the vacant lot you wanted so bad as you now have enough money saved to swing it.

Now what do you call what you have done ?

[izzie]

1. Well I guess nothing.

Who would believe anyone would do that? You can not report to the police every thing you hear that is crazy, but you could say after it happens. Course you could define that and say you should report it if these people had been convicted of doing the same thing before. Now I step out because I am sure I am wrong. These things always get to me.

[moof]

2. are you saying that your answer is " you have done nothing " ?

[izzie]

5. I think so. If I heard some one say that I would think it just 'talk'

You know like you heard, "I would like to kill that guy I hate him so' when you know that does not happen. Their has to be some place to get your footing before you run to the police. If not the line would be a mile long at the police dept.

[moof]

7. five points partial credit and ten points deduct for indecisive re:reply

[izzie]

8. I always sit on a fence and try to make up my mind.

If I am nice to my self I call it being open minded but at times you could just say I am wishy washy. So be it. In Maine we are taught from kids to mind our own business, and you just learn to turn your back. Is is right? Not always. Now you can take the 5 points from me. I understand this. I really view the world and do not get into it a lot.

[LibertyorDeath]

3. I'd call it aiding in the commission of a criminal offense

Arson & Murder
Non action is an action. If you seriously thought this was going to occur
& you did nothing to prevent it then you are a part of it un-willingly no doubt but a part.

They could have warned their neighbor or placed an anonymous call to the local police .

This is a definite Moral crime I'm sure people will argue whether or not it is an actual crime.

Where I live in Canada failure to render assistance or aid to someone who is in a life threatening situation is a chargeable offense.

[Political_Junkie]

4. I would agree, Liberty.

At the very least warn your neighbor. "Silence is the voice of complicity."

[Mnemosyne]

6. Kudos to you and Liberty, as humans we must care for

even those that annoy the sh*t out of us. Why should someone be murdered for making too much noise?

Great intolerance in this country.

[King Of Paperboys]

9. My stab:

It would depend upon the credibility (or what I perceive as the credibility) of the "plotters." If I believed it to be a credible threat, I have a moral, if not legal obligation to report it beforehand. Regardless of the credibility issue, I have both a moral AND a legal obligation to report it after the act has been committed.

I also wish to note that the "vacant lot" is a MacGuffin... it has ZERO bearing on the moral or legal ramifications.

[moof]

12. The vancant lot is vital to solving the riddle

or at least drawing the similarities to real lfe.

[King Of Paperboys]

13. I have no idea what that means.

The vacant lot has NO bearing on the legality nor the morality of what I did or did not do with the information.

Now, if this story is meant to be an analogy of something else, I am not spotting it. Perhaps you'll enlighten me before too much more time passes.

[moof]

15. yes it is hopes to be an analogy

the fact that the vacant lot would become available if the person was dead means that the person had something to gain by staying quiet and doing nothing and if the suspicion of a crime was reported and the plotters caught the lot would not be available to purchase.

So by doing nothing, the lot can now be obtained. and the new owner can answer trufully that there was no personal involvement in the plot.

[King Of Paperboys]

16. OK, but

I stand by what I said... whether the lot exists, whether it becomes available, is irrelevant to the moral and legal implications of what happened. It may assuage my mind to be able to say that I was "not involved," but if I had reason to believe my neighbor was in danger, I had, at least, a moral (if not legal) responsibility to come forward.

[moof]

17. you are putting in the legal/moral part

all the riddle is asking is what do you call what was done,

the first poster at least said nothing which is partially correct.

[moof]

18. you are putting in the legal/moral part

all the riddle is asking is what do you call what was done,

the first poster at least said nothing which is partially correct.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. I'd say that one has committed a crime

And one should immediately report to the police what one overheard.

Though failure to report what you heard BEFORE the burning is probably not illegal, depending on the neighbors who said it, if you really had no thought in the world that they'd actually do it.

But y'all better come clean about it next day.

And, that might let you buy the houses and plots of THOSE neighbors as well. :-)

[King Of Paperboys]

11. That's how Trump got started.

It's true. I read it on the internet.

[Burma Jones]

14. Republican Behavior

All that matters is what I can profit by. Anyway, the guy across the street is a pain in the ass and probably hates America, also the guy was a bad influence on my kids and WON"T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN????

[moof]

19. ok the answer was suppose to be " Let it happen on purpose"

guess it wasn't a very good example.

Thought it might illustrate some of the way 9/11 happened and still allowed the bu*sh people to tell the truth yet not want anyone looking too closely at what happened to cause it.

The administration gets wind that the NYC attack is coming and rather than stop it they just stand by and do nothing nothing because afterwards they can finally get their vacant lot in the mideast with all the oil under it.

Oh well, did it occur to anyone or were you all bogged down in the details be cause it really seemed as simple as it could be reduced down and still have the major components of

LET - do nothing
IT - the crime
HAPPEN - be committed
ON
PURPOSE- because it could have been stopped.

[Kenneth ken]

21. ah well

the difference I think, is that in terms of LIHOP and 9-11, the US was actively seeking information about plots, as opposed to your riddle, where we were out landscaping, minding our own business, and overheard something that may or may not have been an actual plot.

[Kenneth ken]

20. Landscaping!

on edit: and eavesdropping.

just because I overhear someone speaking of planning arson and hoping someone dies, doesn't mean I know they are speaking literally, rather than rhetorically.

Your question stops short of asking what I should do the next morning when I learn, they may in fact have been speaking literally. So, up to that point, all I have been doing is landscaping, and in the process, inadvertently eavesdropping on a conversation.