I was offered a bribe as the team captain. Here’s what happened next.
It looked like a ‘big upside with no downside’ deal
I was the captain of a team. We were playing in a Team Chess Championship.
It was the last round. Our team was dominating.
Then one of the opposition players approached one of our team members. He bought an attractive offer for us — ‘Lose the game as a team and each of you gets paid $XXX. Even if you lose, your team finishes first. But it’ll help our team qualify for the next stage, unlocking many opportunities for us(like a job, status, etc).’
Quickly, my team member relayed this information to me during the round. To make matters worse, I had just blundered a winning position on my board and was losing.
And now I had this team decision to make.
What would you choose?
I had 2 options:
- Take the bribe and lose — We would still finish as tournament winners, and each player gets $xxx. On top of that, it helps the opposing team members unlock better future opportunities for themselves (thanks to our generous loss). So it looks like a win-win.
- Reject the bribe and go for the win — If we rejected the bribe and won fair and square, we would still finish as tournament winners but wouldn’t get any money. Also, by beating them, we steal better future opportunities away from the opposing team players.
What would you do in such a case?
Either way, you’re winning the tournament. So why not go with option 1 and help the opposition even if it looks wrong?
Meanwhile, option 2 looks very selfish.
Take a pause and think before you read the next section.
Here’s what I did
The moment my teammate relayed this information to me, I knew what my decision would be.
It was option 2 — I rejected the bribe.
Even though it didn’t look like we had nothing to lose, more was on the line than I thought.
And looking back, it’s the right decision my team and I made.
Why rejecting the bribe was the right thing to do.
1. A debt of gratitude.
Our team management had spent 10 times the bribe amount by sponsoring a dream tournament for us. They didn’t give cash, but they accounted for every major expense.
Their decision to sponsor our dream event made it so much easier to reject the bribe. We were grateful and knew what our team management did for us. Betraying them was hard.
Now you might say that I didn’t disclose the information earlier. But even if there was no debt of gratitude, rejecting the offer was still an easy decision because…
2. Keeping future opportunities open for each of us open.
Imagine if our team had collectively decided to accept the bribe. In that case, we would be forced to lose that match.
And it doesn’t take long to notice that a team that dominated the event suddenly lost. It would be shocking and unbelievable. Everyone would suspect something off the board happened.
If they find out we took a bribe, it could cost every player on our team some valuable opportunities.
For instance — Our team finds out about our decision(such things don’t stay hidden). Maybe they won’t take the drastic step of expelling us. But they wouldn’t sponsor us the next time.
Tell me — who’s at a loss here? It’s only us.
Stop losing future opportunities just to chase a small gain.
3. Keeping our reputation clean.
By rejecting the bribe, we saved ours, our team’s, and our city’s reputation.
Since it was a team championship, this was our responsibility to everyone we were representing.
What I think of the player who sent the bribe.
He took a risk with great upside and limited downside.
I had a strong reason to say no. But I totally understand where the player who’s sending the bribe comes from.
For any idealist, bribing is unfathomable. But that’s not how the system works.
It could pay off big time for the person who made this risky move. Accepting the offer would unlock many future opportunities for the other side.
At the same time, the downside is low. The worst that could happen is that the offer gets rejected, and the reputation takes a hit. But if you have little to no reputation, such a hit wouldn’t matter.
Conclusion
The takeaway I want to share is the following:
- Stop chasing a short-term gain for a long-term loss.
- Morally, bribing looks bad. But try to understand the motives of the other side instead of judging them outright — there’s always a reason for any action.
- Helping people achieve their dreams can help you in ways you don’t see, just like our team management helping us, stopped us from going against them.
