I asked him for gum; not asking him for a piece of gum was my intention although I knew simply gum sounded awkward. He said I could have his gum. I appreciated him and took 5 pieces. He cleared his throat audibly so that I could hear. I interpreted it as an implication that he did not want more than one piece of gum taken. I understand ed that, but I still wanted more than just one piece of gum for I wanted to save one for the speech that was going to take place in about 4hours -chewing a piece of gum makes one not fall asleep-; plus, I did not specify how many pieces I was going to take away from him, so he shouldn't have postulated that I was going to take just one piece. I could take as many as I wanted to.

But I am a person, who is not psychopathically devoid of conscience. I gave three pieces back and hid one in my pocket, a peccadillo. The piece of gum left in my pocket constantly made me uncomfortable but the rich flavor I could taste from the other piece in my mouth and a sense of anticipation that I would get to chew a piece of gum during the presumbably uninteresting speech counterbalanced my guilty conscience.

Maybe, if I started to chew a piece of gum before my conscience was even in its effect, I probably did not have to retrun 3 pieces of gum to Sam. I was thoughtless.