The eighth bough of avarice is unfair dealing, wherein one sins in many
ways for temporal gain, and especially in seven ways. The first is to
sell things as dear as one can, and to buy as cheap as one can. The
second is lying, swearing, and forswearing, the dearer to sell their
chaffer. The third way is what one does in weights and measures, and
that may be in three ways. The first when one has diverse weights or
diverse measures, and buys by the greatest weights or by the greatest
measures, and sells by the least. The second way is when one has just
weights and just measures, and sells dishonestly, as do these
tavern-keepers that fill the measure with scum. The third way is when
those that sell by weight so procure and cause that the thing that one
shall weigh shows more heavy. The fourth way to sin in unfair dealing is
to sell to time; of this we have spoken above. The fifth way is to sell
another thing than one is shown before, as do these scriveners that show
a good letter at the beginning and afterwards make a bad one. The sixth
is to hide the truth about the thing that one will sell, as do the
fraudulent dealers. The seventh is to cause (to procure) that the thing
that one sells seems to have a better appearance than it has, as do
these sellers of cloth that choose dark places, where they sell their
cloth. In many other ways one may sin in unfair dealings, but it would
be a long matter to tell.