Gift Horse

The 12-year-old has been riding an old, beat-up rummage sale bike for a couple years.
He has told us other kids have made fun of it.
Yet, he has been very cool about not feeling the need to buy a new one.

Last week, he came home with the news that one of his buddies offered to trade bikes with him.
This buddy likes to fix up old bikes, and, from what I understood, saw some potential in the 12-year-old's old beater.
So, he offered to give our boy one of the bikes he'd already fixed in exchange for the old beater.

Did he want any money?
Really? He's going to call it an even swap?
Okay, honey, whatever you two figure is fair. Go for it.

So, Saturday, the buddy came over with a bike, chatted with the 12-year-old, and rode away on the old beater.

We were all pretty excited.
The 12-year-old grabbed his helmet and hopped on the bike excited to take it for a spin.

First thing we noticed: no kickstand.
No biggie. We'll go buy one.

Second thing we noticed: no brakes.
What?
No brakes?

No brakes.
Just remnants of hand brakes that had been removed.

Did he tell you there were no brakes when he dropped it off?
No?

Third thing: it wasn't even painted up nice.

So, I'm wondering what exactly this buddy fixed up?
It was a perfectly useless bike.

The 12-year-old was obviously disappointed.
"I could've painted my old bike myself, and it'd still be better than THIS. I can't even USE this!"

Fortunately, I married a man who likes to tinker.
A man who removed the hand brakes from his own bike (which he rarely uses) and installed them on the boy's bike.

So, now the boy DOES have a bike nicer than the one he had.

And now the boy has learned a lesson about deals that sound too good to be true.