Twenty minutes later, one of the men finally got the call. The money had gone through.

The six of them stood up from the couch, looking satisfied. One of them dropped a stack of IOUs onto the coffee table and said with a smug grin:

"See? That wasn't so hard. You had the money the whole time—why make it such a big deal? Hey, if you ever need more cash, you know where to find me. As long as you pay it back, borrowing's no problem at all."

They walked ...