THE EIGHTH BOUGH OF AVARICE.
The eighth bough of avarice is unfair dealing, wherein one sins in many ways for temporal gain, and especially in seven ways. The first is to sell things as dear as one can, and to buy as cheap as one can. The second is lying, swearing, and forswearing, the dearer to sell their chaffer. The third way is what one does in weights and measures, and that may be in three ways. The first when one has diverse weights or diverse measures, and buys by the greatest weights or by the greatest measures, and sells by the least. The second way is when one has just weights and just measures, and sells dishonestly, as do these tavern-keepers that fill the measure with scum. The third way is when those that sell by weight so procure and cause that the thing that one shall weigh shows more heavy. The fourth way to sin in unfair dealing is to sell to time; of this we have spoken above. The fifth way is to sell another thing than one is shown before, as do these scriveners that show a good letter at the beginning and afterwards make a bad one. The sixth is to hide the truth about the thing that one will sell, as do the fraudulent dealers. The seventh is to cause (to procure) that the thing that one sells seems to have a better appearance than it has, as do these sellers of cloth that choose dark places, where they sell their cloth. In many other ways one may sin in unfair dealings, but it would be a long matter to tell.