When I was in middle school I was in the school’s band. The brass section to be specific. One of the other brass section members was an obnoxious prick who was always scornful of others and made a lot of put downs towards those who weren’t as good as he was. (And unfortunately, although he was a jerk, he was a VERY talented player, so the put-downs and insults were frequent). Anyways, two of my buddies and I realized that all the brass section used these little bottles of oil for either their valves (trumpet, cornet, tuba) or slides (trombones). The oil was a rich golden yellow color and quite thin, almost the consistency of water.
Well one day, after one too many insults and put downs, I and my two friends came up with an idea. we… er… replaced the oil in this kid’s instrument case with another, more “natural” liquid, also a golden yellow in color. Which he used to lubricate his valves. And they continued to stick. So he used more. And they stuck more. And he used more. And then his instrument began to stink. Badly.
After the band director sent the instrument in for repairs, he just happened to meet up with our little trio when we were hanging out after school one day. He inquired as to whether or not we “did something” to one of the bottles of oil in another student’s instrument case. With angelic expressions, we, of course, had no idea what he was talking about. With a bit of a suppressed smirk, the band teacher said that if he ever had that happen again, he would have to do a more thorough investigation into who had done such vandalism… (and then he added)… even if the victim really, really deserved it.
As an adult, I feel like that kid probably had some traits of being a sociopath, but not enough to go hurting and maiming others like in the movies. More likely he had the traits at a level that were good for business, for he became a leading businessman and is now just a step or two down from being the CEO of a large company. Hence the slightly circumspect answer. I don’t know if he’ll recognize himself, but I don’t want anyone else to recognize him, as I don’t want this story to interfere with his large company from possibly donating to my much smaller non-profit organization.