A BAD BARGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4, 5 January 1903, Page 2

A BAD BARGAIN.

While out for a stroll the other afternoon, a certain Auckland gentleman reached the foot of a hill just as a cyclist, who had evidently lost control of his machine, came tearing down.

There was a nasty spill, and the gentleman hurried forward to the unfortunate cyclist's assistance. As it turned out, however, he was not much hurt, and the condition of his machine appeared to trouble him more than anything else.

"Just my luck," he groaned, as the gentleman approached. "That machine cost fifteen guineas a fortnight ago. I'd take a sovereign for it now." After a hurried examination of the bicycle, the gentleman expresses the opinion that "matters might have been worse." "•It's unrideable at present," he remarked; "but I wouldn't mind giving a sovereign for it." In a few minutes the bargain was concluded, and the stranger hobbled off with a sovereign instead of a bicycle. The gentleman's feelings may be imagined, when, three minutes later, a party of cyclists, headed by a policeman, rode down the hill and claimed the machine, which had been stolen from the front of a publichouse less than a mile away. The thief was never captured, and the innocent receiver had some difficulty in clearing himself.