Great story, @greenrun. We have a lot of those con men here and I can relate to the character so much. Many times I was tempted by con men/women in the streets. Many times I fell flat. I can't blame Tega for not trying the bet.

Human relations can be like a lottery. You may intentionally want to win big and lose miserably, while other times you hit the jackpot without even trying.
The kind of distrust we develop in unsafe societies can be very harmful.

Sometimes we do not help people who might really need it, just because we are so tired of being tricked that we'd rather turn our backs to potential trickster than carry the burden of having been duped.

That, far from changing in the cyber world, has gone worse.

Both Tega and Kings, the two extremes in the equation were very well developed characters