Dan ArielyBack to OpinionDan Ariely  How to commit the perfect
crime   There is a certain perverse pleasure in contemplating
the perfect crime.   The perfect crime usually takes the form of
a bank robbery in which the criminals cleverly bypass all
security systems using neat gadgets, rappelling wires and
knowledge they’ve acquired over several weeks of casing the
joint. This seems to be an ideal crime because we can applaud
the criminals’ cunning, intelligence and resourcefulness.  But
it’s not quite perfect. After all, contingencies by definition
depend on chance, and therefore can’t ever be perfectly thought
out (and in all good bank-robber movies, the thieves either
almost get caught or do).  Even if the chances of being caught
are close to zero, do we really want to call this a perfect
crime? The authorities are likely to take it very seriously, and
respond accordingly with harsh punishment. In this light, the
0.001 percent chance of getting caught might not seem like a
lot, but if you take into account t