This is no cautionary tale, no morality play. There is no lesson to be learned.
If I whisper in your ear, "tell no one of this." Who is to blame when you do just that? Shake hands, smile nice, exchange pleasantries, sign names, trade: properties, cash, biology. There is a story at the foundation of every agreement, the center of all idolatry, the dregs the drunkard is compelled to drink. "When we took truth's temperature, the thermometer broke. While we try in vain to sweep it with a broom, mercury gathers in the tines, eventually, enough to kill us. But that's just a story about the scientist, or perhaps the weather man, or amateur golfer (back when they still used mercury in thermometers). If you say, "I don't believe a word of it." and I think its because you simply don't want to, well, you can call me a liar.
I ask only that you judge me by the tales my children will tell, though they are not yet living. They will speak longer than me.