101 Conversations in Simple English

59. The trade-off

Mariana Windsor explains that she stole the Turner drawings because she needed more money to buy comics for her collection. When her father stopped giving her money, Robert Green told her she could take him valuable objects from the house in exchange….

Mariana Windsor: No! He didn’t ask me to steal. He told me that he made lots of trade-offs with his customers.

Natalie: Trade-offs?

Mariana Windsor: Yes, a trade-off, an exchange. He would give me a valuable object if I gave him one.

Alice: So you took him the drawings?

Mariana Windsor: No, that was much later. First, I began to take him small objects, things that I found around the house.

Alice: Like what?

Mariana Windsor: I don’t know, a book from the library, a watch, an old salt shaker….

Liz: You took the silver salt shaker!

Mariana Windsor: I’m sorry! I wasn’t thinking!