A Touch of Humor: The Ethical Dilemma of Maintaining Two Sets of Books

In the world of business, ethical dilemmas often unfold in surprising ways—sometimes involving the collaboration of well-meaning individuals and unexpected rules. One such incident happened during a mentoring initiative for a Junior Achievement team comprised of eager high school students. As part of our volunteer role, a group of us, consisting of 2nd and 3rd-year associates, dedicated our efforts to guide these young minds in running a simulated business over a couple of months.

Our entrepreneurial spirit led us to choose an appealing venture: selling fruit baskets. The concept was simple—purchase bulk fruit and baskets, assemble them, and deliver the final product to local customers. However, Junior Achievement had a set of guidelines, one of which posed quite a challenge: the team could not incur any debt. While this rule was undoubtedly intended to protect the organization, it introduced a significant hurdle for us. The catch was not only about avoiding debt; it essentially meant we couldn’t create any liabilities.

This situation left us grappling with a fundamental question: how do we purchase fruit without any upfront capital? And how could we generate funds without crossing the line into liability territory? As it turned out, the solution we landed on was to request that customers prepay for their fruit baskets. This approach allowed us to collect funds at the time orders were placed and then deliver the products a few weeks later. From a business standpoint, this strategy seemed to flourish.

However, this is where the story takes a humorous turn. A crucial part of the project involved generating weekly financial reports that needed to be submitted to the Junior Achievement office for their review. If we included the cash collections and deferred revenue—which were inevitable due to our prepayment system—there’s no doubt the office would have raised eyebrows. Yet, we needed to keep track of who had paid for what, thus prompting an unintended consequence: we found ourselves creating two separate sets of financial records.

In hindsight, it became somewhat of a comical realization. As we sat down one day, it dawned on us that we were, in fact, maintaining two sets of books. One set represented our ‘real’ financial dealings, while the other was destined for the scrutiny of the regional office—think of it as the “audited” version. What started as an innocent oversight gradually transformed into an accepted practice, especially considering the project only had a few weeks left and seemed to be running smoothly