That book is quite hilarious. The ambiguity is sneaky too. Why the 17th century? Popular scams approximate type 7 and 2. ‘Enticement to gambling’ and ‘dropping the bag’ are just short of a legalized bank robbery.

Related (Confidence):

1. The New Cheats of London Exposed (1792)
2. The Confidence–Man: His Masquerade (1857)
3. The Humbugs of the World (1866)
4. Don Quixote (1605)
5. The Swindler (1626)
6. The Water Margin (1589)
7. Plum in the Golden Vase (1610)
8. Stories Old and New (1620)

Unrelated (History & Philosophy):

1. Book of Changes
2. Book of Documents
3. The Analects
4. The Records of the Grand Historian

Falling for enough cons is the mark of a casual connoisseur in books of confidence. One of my favorites is The Book of Swindles by Zhang Yingyu. How could one not read a book that inspires such a beautifully scandalous contra introduction?

This is an age of deception. Con men ply the roadways. Bogus alchemists pretend to turn one piece of silver into three. Devious nuns entice young women into adultery. Sorcerers use charmed talismans for mind control and murder…

The first lesson against swindles is ‘obtaining passage through the state of Yu to attack the state of Guo’, which in faraway modern times translates to keeping the tin foil hats demarcated at a safe arm’s length of distance.

The Internet is such a chaotic mindscape and must be an epistemologist’s dream. The world adjusted disambiguation should be (rather tongue in cheek);

The Bahamas, not to be confused with Hamas, Barbados, or Bermuda, neither Bahamians with Bohemians in Bohemia of The Czech Republic, nor the plurality of Bohemian Rhapsodies, or Bahamas (the musician), or Bahamo (that town in Central Africa) or even Bahamut, the invisible fish that carries this planet on its back through the cosmic sea.

Bahamoj works though, it’s Esperanto or something.

I’m late on the uptake. Is Hamas in The Bahamas? No. But surely, hamas is inside The Bahamas. Yes, and rhymes internally too!

That made its rounds, but after coming across the source — it’s not funny anymore.