funny SPEP story just remembered

I’ll keep all names out of this, but it comes from years ago when SPEP was at Notre Dame, and was told to me by one the principals to the story.

As many of you know, continental philosophy publishers send sample copies of their books to the SPEP conference each year. As a reward for staffing the tables, the graduate students who do so divvy up the books between themselves at the end of the conference (the publishers apparently don’t ask to have the books back).

Well, in this particular year, one of the Notre Dame students told one of the Penn State students that he was welcome to join in selecting the books, and should bring his Penn State friends along the next morning to do it. (I no longer recall why the Penn State students were singled out for this favor; perhaps they had helped staff the tables.)

Next morning, the time came to choose the books. The Notre Dame students took to the task warmly. But only the one Penn State student showed up, with none of his friends, and he uneasily picked just one book before refusing to take any more.

The Notre Dame inviter was confused, but she ignored his strange attitude and went back to choosing her own books.

Some time later, she asked him why he had shown up by himself and selected only one book when he might have been eligible for a dozen or more.

Well, it turns out that the Penn State student thought they were stealing the books! His conscience got the better of him, and he could only bring himself to steal just one book from the exhibit, no more.