He’s also my business partner. He kept his watch collection with me since his wife doesn’t allow him to buy watches and made me promise not to ever tell his wife about them. Not only because she doesn’t like it but also because she will definitely ask him to sell them and probably spend the money on clothes and traveling like she often does.

He lets me use the watches in the condition that I don’t cause any damage. But now that he passed away it doesn’t feel right any more.

His watch collection is worth about 200K$ in todays market. I think the lawful and ethical thing to do is to break the promise and tell his wife but I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do since he made me promise not to tell her.

  • South_Dakota_Boy@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I agree.

    Spending $200k on watches is very rare. I feel like either the person has a huge spending problem and the family is in debt, or they have plenty of money and $200k isn’t much of a dent in their net worth. Not a lot of middle ground there.

    The way OPs story reads, there isn’t a lot of kindness in the marriage. No loving person would make their spouse sell their 6 figure collection of jewelry so they could buy more clothes and travel. If there was a question of selling to pay for necessities or bills or college for the kids it would be different.

    My personal 2 cents to OP is to say “do they need the money?” If not, keep the collection. The friend would have willed it to you anyway if he’d had the chance.

    That’s def not legal, but you could make a case that it is morally justified. Again, depending on the exact circumstances which the friend may not know. If in doubt, give the watches back, preferably with a note addressing the truth of the situation.

    • acolombo@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      The only sane answer I’ve read in the comments.

      Why would the wife deserve the collection more than the friend? If she wasn’t meant to even know about the collection and she hasn’t got financial problems, morally there’s nothing wrong in the friend keeping the watches.