0:15

Pushkin. As

0:22

the night draws in and the fire

0:24

blazes on the hearth. We

0:27

warn the children by telling them stories.

0:30

Rumpelstiltskin teaches them not to

0:32

make promises they can't keep. But

0:36

my stories are for the education

0:38

of the grown ups, and my

0:40

stories are all true. I'm

0:43

Tim Harford. Gather close

0:46

and listen to my cautionary

0:48

tales. There

1:05

may be times and places where

1:08

it's a good idea to talk back to

1:10

a military officer, but Germany

1:13

in nineteen oh six isn't

1:15

one of them, so

1:17

the young corporal doesn't. The

1:19

corporal let's call him Corporal

1:22

Muller, has been leading his squad

1:24

of four privates down Silter

1:26

Strasse in Berlin, only to

1:28

be challenged by a captain. The

1:30

captain is about fifty, a

1:33

slim fellow with sunken cheeks,

1:35

the outline of his skull prominent

1:37

above a large white mustache. Truth

1:41

be told, he looks strangely

1:43

down on his luck, but

1:45

Corporal Muller doesn't seem to take that in. Like

1:49

any man in uniform, the captain

1:51

looks taller and broader thanks

1:53

to his boots, smart gray overcoat

1:56

and Prussian blue officer's cap.

1:58

His white gloved hand rests

2:01

casually on the hilt of his rapier.

2:03

Where are you taking those men back to the barracks,

2:06

sir? Turn them around and follow me.

2:09

I have an urgent mission from the all

2:11

Highest, comment the all Highest.

2:14

Everyone knows that means orders

2:16

from the Kaiser. As the

2:18

small group marched towards Pullitztras'

2:20

station, the charismatic captain

2:22

sees another squad. You

2:26

men, yes, Captain, all in behind.

2:28

The Kaiser himself has commanded it. Yes,

2:31

Captain. The

2:35

Captain now commands a little army,

2:38

and all ten soldiers ride

2:40

the train across Berlin towards

2:42

Kirpernick, a charming little town

2:44

just southeast of the capitol. On

2:47

arrival, the adventure continues.

2:51

Corporal lined his men up for

2:53

inspection. Line up, men, hurry,

2:58

fix baronets.

3:01

It's already been an extraordinary day

3:03

for Corporal Muller and his men, but

3:06

we're just getting started. What

3:08

they are about to do is going to be the

3:10

talk of newspapers around

3:12

the world. You're

3:15

listening to another cautionary

3:18

tale.

3:39

Cautionary tales are stories about

3:41

other people's mistakes and what

3:44

we should learn from them lest we make

3:46

the same mistakes. Ourselves.

3:49

Sometimes these mistakes are

3:51

tragic, sometimes they're

3:53

comic. This time I present

3:56

a comedy. At

3:58

least I think it's a comedy. And

4:00

the Captain of Kirpernick is going to help

4:03

me. He has a name, by the way, a

4:05

name that will soon become famous. His

4:08

name is Wilhelm Voight.

4:12

Remember where we left him. He's outside

4:14

the town hall of Kerpernick snapping

4:17

out orders to Corporal Muller and his men.

4:19

They're lined up, their bayonets are

4:21

fixed, and now the

4:23

fun is going to begin. Captain

4:26

Voight's little army bursts into

4:28

Kerpennick town Hall, into the office

4:31

of the Mayor. A man named

4:33

gilg langerhans, you're under arrist

4:36

The Kaiser has decreed that you are avanted

4:38

men. He's in his mid thirties, a

4:40

mild looking fellow with pastnay

4:42

spectacles, a pointed goatee

4:44

and a large, well groomed mustache.

4:47

He stands in astonishment. This

4:49

is illegal. There's your

4:51

warrant. My warrants is

4:53

the men. I command you, sir,

4:57

What is your role here? I

4:59

answered, Tom Treasurer. Sir, then

5:03

opened the safe. The cash reserve

5:05

is to be confiscated for safe keeping, and

5:08

we shall be exam the accounts for fraud.

5:12

Kerpennick's Municipals safe contains

5:15

three thousand, five hundred and fifty

5:17

seven marks forty five Phoenix.

5:20

Captain Voight is punctilious

5:22

about the count. Here

5:25

is your receipt. Stamp it and keep

5:27

it safe. It's

5:29

nearly a quarter of a million dollars

5:31

in today's money. You

5:34

too, find Frau Lagahan's and arrestor.

5:36

She will be interrogated alongside him.

5:39

Treat her this courtesy,

5:42

yes, Sir. Captain Voight searches

5:45

the town hall office while his men

5:47

keep the town officials under arrest. Failing

5:50

to find what he seeks, he decides

5:52

to wrap up the mission. The officials

5:55

are to be driven to a police station not

5:57

far from where the day's adventure began.

6:00

There they'll be detained and interrogated.

6:05

Captain Voight himself walks

6:07

to Koerpennick railway station. He

6:10

collects a package from the left luggage

6:12

office and steps into a

6:14

restroom stall. A

6:16

minute or two later, he steps

6:19

out again, and he's

6:21

almost unrecognizable,

6:24

having changed into shabby civilian

6:26

clothes. He ambles

6:29

bandy legged across the station concourse,

6:32

This anonymous fellow boards

6:35

the train back to Berlin with

6:37

his uniform neatly folded under

6:39

one arm and a bag of money

6:42

under the other. He

6:44

looks over his shoulder as he steps

6:46

onto the train, gazing out

6:48

over the station. He smiles.

6:52

Then he disappears into the carriage,

6:55

and just like that, the Captain

6:58

of Kirpernick is gone. Soon

7:03

after, Corporal Muller presents

7:06

his prisoners at the police station in central

7:08

Berlin. The situation quickly

7:10

becomes baffling to all concerned.

7:14

Nobody has heard anything about the Kaiser demanding

7:16

the interrogation of the Mayor of Kirpernick

7:19

nor his wife. After a

7:21

phone call to headquarters, the

7:23

head of the German General

7:25

Staff himself, General

7:27

Helmuth von Moltkurther Younger, arrives

7:31

to resolve the situation. But

7:34

nobody has received any orders

7:36

from the all highest. Nobody

7:39

can see any reason to detain the

7:41

mayor or his wife or

7:43

his treasurer, and nobody

7:46

can recall ever having

7:48

met a Captain Voight.

7:52

No wonder, Captain

7:54

Voight never existed. They

7:58

met instead her Wilhelmvoit,

8:01

an ex convict, an ex

8:04

shoemaker, a nobody

8:06

who possessed nothing more than a confident

8:09

and a very nice uniform.

8:17

The tale I just told you is a famous

8:20

one in Germany. When the Germans

8:22

tell the story, they tend to linger on

8:24

the prelude to the highstin Kupernick.

8:28

What kind of man does this? Who

8:31

was Wilhelm Voight and what inspired

8:33

his audacious confidence trick? Voit

8:37

was a cook, no doubt about it. His

8:39

crimes included armed robbery,

8:42

but the judicial system treated

8:44

him harshly, stuffing a legitimate

8:46

appeal into a filing cabinet to grow

8:48

mildew. After he had served

8:51

his time, he was run out of town

8:53

after town by police who didn't want

8:55

an ex convict around. He

8:57

had no papers. Without papers,

8:59

he couldn't get a job without a job.

9:02

He couldn't get an address without an

9:04

address, how could he get papers?

9:07

In this version of the story, Voit

9:09

is persecuted by a cruel bureaucracy,

9:12

driven to ransacking the office of

9:14

the mayor of Kirpernick, looking not

9:17

for money, but for the paperwork

9:20

he needed to get a job. The

9:23

English speaking world drew

9:25

a different lesson from the newspaper

9:27

reports of the Prussian prankster that

9:30

the Germans are a sucker

9:33

for a shouty man in a uniform,

9:35

the most humorous figure of the center, it

9:37

declared the Morning Post. The

9:39

British writer G. K. Chesterton

9:42

could scarcely contain his glee

9:44

upon reading the reports from Kirpernick,

9:48

a comic absurd fraud at least

9:50

two English eyes. One would

9:52

have thought anyone would have known that no soldier would

9:54

talk like that. Yes,

9:57

it's easy to laugh when it happens to

9:59

someone else. But then four

10:01

years later, a group of young

10:04

upper class pranksters, including

10:06

the novelist Virginia Wolf, managed

10:08

to a change for a tour of the Royal

10:11

Navy's flagship HMS Dreadnought

10:14

by putting on turbans,

10:16

deep brown makeup and

10:18

fake beards and claiming

10:21

to be from the royal family of Abyssinia.

10:24

Yes, I know it's not cool, but

10:27

what's even more jaw dropping is

10:29

that the Royal Navy lapped it up.

10:32

The pranksters pre agreed what they were going

10:34

to say in greeting Vunga

10:37

Bunga. When they had

10:40

to invent further Abyssinian, they

10:42

improvised by speaking scrambled

10:44

phrases from the ancient Greek poetry

10:47

they'd learnt at school, led on tools

10:49

polo chiusos playeries pagete

10:52

de ac Dear,

10:55

what jolly

10:58

good faced

11:00

with this ridiculous and, to

11:03

our modern eyes, profoundly offensive display.

11:05

The Royal Navy responded with an appropriate

11:08

degree of ignorance. It treated

11:10

the visitors with all the honor it could muster,

11:13

including the flag and anthem of

11:16

the nation of Zanzibar rather

11:18

than Abyssinia. That was apparently close

11:20

enough to satisfy everyone. So

11:25

perhaps the lesson is that the Royal Navy will

11:27

bow and scrape for Virginia wolf in black

11:29

face and a fake beard. Or

11:32

perhaps the lesson is that we're all

11:34

vulnerable to the right kind of con Look

11:37

at modern America. Not so very

11:39

long ago, managers of fast food

11:41

restaurants around the United States fell

11:44

prey to a hoax that was uncannily

11:46

familiar. For example, in

11:49

April two thousand and four, a

11:51

man calling himself Officer Scott,

11:54

phoned the McDonald's in Louisville, Kentucky,

11:57

to report that a member of staff had been suspected

12:00

of stealing a purse. He had McDonald's

12:03

corporate on the line with him, he said, and

12:05

the police were on their way to make an arrest.

12:08

Yet while waiting for the police

12:10

to arrive to McDonald's, assistant

12:12

managers obeyed the increasingly

12:15

appalling instructions of Officer

12:17

Scott, forcing the young woman to

12:20

strip and much worse. What

12:22

makes the story even more disturbing

12:25

is that there have been about seventy of

12:27

these hoax calls over the years, often

12:29

with similarly traumatic results. If

12:33

Germans in nineteen o six would follow

12:35

any order from a man in uniform,

12:37

a century later, assistant managers

12:40

in America would do anything to

12:42

their subordinates if they thought that the police

12:45

and corporate h Q wanted them to

12:47

so. Our cautionary tale isn't about

12:50

the Germans and their love of uniforms.

12:53

It's about a hard lesson faced

12:56

with the right Khan. We're

12:58

all vulnerable. Any

13:01

of us could have been the hapless corporal

13:03

Muller, since

13:16

Wilhelm Voight persuaded people

13:18

to obey orders they shouldn't have obeyed.

13:21

You may already be thinking about Stanley

13:23

Milgram. Milgram's the man

13:26

who in the nineteen sixties conducted

13:28

one of the most famous and controversial

13:30

psychological experiments of all time,

13:34

an experiment that I think we tend to misunderstand.

13:37

Milgram recruited unsuspecting

13:40

members of the American public, all

13:42

men to participate in what

13:44

they were told was a study of memory.

13:47

On showing up at the laboratory, a basement

13:49

at Yale University, they met

13:52

a man, apparently a scientist,

13:55

just as Voit had apparently been

13:57

a Prussian Army captain. I should

13:59

like to tell both of you are a little about the memory

14:02

project. The man was dressed in a tie

14:04

and a gray lap coat. One theory is

14:06

that people learned things correctly whenever they get punished

14:08

from it being a mistake. The man

14:11

dressed as a scientist supervised

14:13

proceedings. Participants would be assigned

14:15

the role either of teacher or

14:18

learner. The learner was

14:20

then strapped into an electric chair

14:23

while the teacher retreated into another

14:25

room to take control of a dangerous

14:28

machine. And as electrical taste

14:30

is to provide a good contact to avoid

14:32

any blister of burn. As

14:35

the learner failed to answer questions

14:38

correctly, the teacher was asked

14:40

to administer steadily increasing

14:42

doses of electric current. Is incorrect?

14:45

This would be a three thirty fret

14:50

frame. Is rich, boy, Let

14:52

me out of here? If I had father, let me

14:55

let me out of here. Let me out of here good

14:58

next phrase is the fast many

15:03

proved willing to deliver possibly

15:06

fatal jolts, despite the learner

15:08

having all the way you complained of a heart condition,

15:10

despite the screams of pain and the pleadings

15:13

to be released coming from the other side of

15:15

the wall, and despite

15:18

the fact that the switches on the

15:20

shock machine read danger

15:24

severe shock x x

15:27

X. The ANSWER's

15:29

arrow riera

15:32

seventy five hours. I

15:34

think sometime haven't had a follow me, I'll

15:37

get answer. He was hard on or less volage

15:40

edge check. Please not once

15:42

we've started, Please continue teacher. Of

15:45

course, there were no shocks. Both

15:48

the screaming learner and the scientific

15:51

supervisor were actors. The

15:54

true experiment was studying the

15:56

teachers. How far would

15:58

they go when following direct orders.

16:01

In the best known study, sixty

16:03

five percent of experimental subjects

16:06

went all the way to four hundred and fifty

16:08

volts, applying shocks long

16:11

after the man in the other room had

16:13

fallen silent. Milgram's

16:17

research agenda was influenced by

16:19

the shadow of the Holocaust and a

16:21

desire to understand how it had been

16:23

possible. He made the link explicit,

16:26

citing, for example, Hannah Arrant's

16:28

coverage of the trial of the prominent

16:31

Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann,

16:34

Arrant reminded us had always

16:37

been a law abiding citizen because

16:39

Hitler's orders, which he had certainly

16:41

executed to the best of his ability, had

16:44

possessed the force of law in the

16:46

Third Reich, just

16:49

following orders, yet

16:51

another German, unthinkingly obeying

16:54

a man in the uniform, had

16:56

the same unthinking obedience that

16:58

produced the comedy of Kirpernick

17:00

in nineteen oh six, also

17:03

given us history's most famous

17:05

atrocity. Stanley

17:07

Milgram certainly seemed to think his

17:09

experiment was all about obedience

17:12

to authority, but modern

17:15

scientists no longer see Milgram's

17:18

re search in quite that way. Alex

17:21

Haslem, a psychologist who re

17:23

examined the studies, found that

17:25

when the man in the lab coat gave direct

17:28

orders, they backfired. It's

17:31

absolutely essential that you've continued, Oh

17:34

essential or Notarth, This program isn't quite that important

17:36

to me that I should go along doing something and I haven't

17:38

known nothing about, particularly if it's going to injury someone,

17:42

you know, other choice teacher, Oh, I am

17:44

Lentially, my number

17:46

one choice said that I wouldn't go on if I thought he

17:48

was being fired. Nobody continued

17:51

after that order. People needed

17:53

to be persuaded, not bullied,

17:55

into participating. So

17:58

if these experiments weren't about

18:00

blind obedience, what were

18:02

they about. Here's

18:05

a detail that's usually overlooked.

18:08

Milgram's machine had thirty

18:10

settings, fine increments

18:12

of fifteen vaults. It's

18:15

hard to object to giving someone a tiny

18:17

fifteen volts shock. And

18:20

if you've decided that fifteen volts

18:22

is fine, then why draw

18:24

the line at thirty volts? Why

18:27

draw the line at forty five? Why

18:30

draw the line anywhere? At

18:33

one hundred and fifty volts? The learner

18:35

yelled out in distress. Some

18:38

people stopped at that point, but

18:41

those who continued passed one hundred

18:43

and fifty volts almost always

18:45

kept going to the full four

18:47

hundred and fifty volts. They

18:50

were in too deep. Perhaps

18:53

Stanley Milgram's experiments weren't

18:56

a study of obedience so much

18:58

as a study of our own unwillingness

19:00

to stop and to admit we've been

19:03

making a dreadful mistake. We

19:05

are in too deep, We are

19:07

committed and can't

19:09

turn back where

19:15

are you taking those men back to

19:17

the Badgerts? Sir? Think

19:20

back to that day in Berlin in nineteen

19:22

o six. Voight stops

19:25

Corporal Miller in the street and demands

19:27

to know where he and his men are going. What

19:30

would you do in such a situation? Voit

19:33

looks a little old for a captain, and there's

19:35

something about his uniform that isn't quite

19:37

right. But are you really going to

19:39

demand proof of identification?

19:42

Of course not. He's only asked to

19:44

know where you're going. You don't want to risk

19:47

a court martial over answering a simple

19:49

question, Where are you taking those men back

19:51

to the babberts? Sir? Turn them around

19:54

and follow me. Voit wants Muller's squad

19:56

to follow him. That's a bit more

19:58

of a stretch, but only a bit.

20:02

After all, Muller has already obeyed

20:04

one order, already addressed this stranger

20:07

in a uniform as Sir marching

20:10

down the street behind him. Is just one

20:12

small action further, and after

20:15

all, Corporal Muller marches

20:17

down the street on the instructions of superior

20:20

officers every day of his life.

20:23

The pattern repeats itself for the second

20:25

squad when they first see

20:27

Captain Voight. He's already at the head

20:30

of half a dozen men. That's

20:32

the evidence he is who he says he is.

20:35

Why not fall in? Why not get

20:37

the train to Kirpernick, Why not fix

20:40

bayonets for inspection. It's

20:43

really only at the moments that they burst

20:45

into the town hall, but the

20:47

doubts might occur. But by then

20:50

they'd traveled all the way across Berlin. They'd

20:53

been following Wilhelm Voight's instructions

20:55

for a couple of hours. It would

20:57

have been very late in the day for Corporal

21:00

Muller or anyone else to

21:02

have the presence of mind to stop

21:06

think and challenge their

21:08

own captain for the day. Notice

21:13

that the young mayor, George Lanahan's saw

21:15

the situation very differently. What

21:18

is the meaning of this? Unlike

21:20

Muller, he wasn't asked to volunteer

21:22

a trivial piece of information. Instead,

21:25

he was immediately arrested. It

21:28

was as though Stanley Milgram asked an

21:30

experimental subjects to go straight

21:32

to four hundred and fifty volts. At

21:36

first glance, then Wilhelm voids

21:38

kN and Stanley Milgram's shock

21:40

experiments are evidence for the idea

21:42

that we'll do anything for a figure of

21:44

authority wearing the right outfit,

21:47

but look deeper and their evidence

21:50

for something else, that we're willing

21:52

to help out with reasonable requests, and

21:55

that step by step we

21:58

find ourselves trapped in a web

22:00

of our own making. But

22:03

I want to think bigger than the world of

22:05

the con artist. This cautionary

22:08

tale is about something much more important

22:10

than that. Yes, we

22:13

fall for cons but we fall

22:15

for all kinds of other superficial

22:18

things that shouldn't matter, like

22:20

a nice uniform. And those

22:22

superficial things are constantly

22:25

influencing our decisions, including

22:28

decisions that we may later come

22:30

to regret. Almost

22:39

exactly one hundred and ten years

22:42

after Wilhelm Voight's audacious

22:44

heist, Hillary Clinton and

22:46

Donald Trump squared off in one

22:49

of three televised debates you

22:51

might remember it in a town

22:53

hall format. The candidates were

22:55

able to roam the stage, and Trump

22:58

certainly did, rome, following

23:00

Clinton around as she answered questions

23:03

looming behind her, clearly

23:06

visible over the top of Clinton's head,

23:09

apologizes for anything to anyone

23:12

After the debate, that was all anyone

23:14

could talk about. Wasn't an attempt

23:16

at intimidation? I will

23:18

say this about Hillary. She

23:21

doesn't quit, she doesn't give up. Perhaps

23:23

it was you could be the judge

23:26

of that. But there's

23:28

something else about that footage of Donald

23:30

Trump stalking Hillary Clinton. He

23:33

looks huge, like

23:36

Darth Vader, towering over Princess

23:38

Leia. American voters were

23:41

being offered all kinds of choices

23:43

in that election, but one

23:45

that was never articulated was

23:48

this, would you like to

23:50

elect the third tallest president

23:53

ever or the shortest president

23:55

since James Madison two centuries

23:58

ago. But while it may

24:00

never have been articulated, there's

24:02

not much doubt that some voters

24:04

were influenced by the disparity and

24:06

height. The US

24:09

does elect a lot of tall presidents.

24:12

Trump was taller than Hillary Clinton.

24:14

Obama was taller than McCain,

24:17

Bush Senior was taller than to carcass

24:20

Reagan was taller than Carter, Nixon

24:22

was taller than Humphrey. Kennedy was taller

24:25

than Nixon. Truman was taller than Dewey.

24:27

Lyndon Johnson was taller than pretty much

24:29

everyone. Are we electing

24:32

a president here or picking a basketball

24:34

team? Of course,

24:37

there are some exceptions to the rule. When

24:40

Carter beat Ford, it was a victory

24:42

for the little guy, but serious

24:44

statistical analysis concludes that

24:46

taller presidential candidates are

24:49

more likely to win the election, more

24:51

likely to win reelection, and

24:53

more likely, unlike Donald Trump,

24:56

to win the popular vote. Hillary

24:58

Clinton would have been the first female

25:01

president, true, but

25:03

she would also have been the first president

25:06

to win despite a ten

25:09

height disadvantage since eighteen

25:11

twelve. Americans may not

25:14

have elected any female presidents over

25:16

the years, but they haven't elected

25:18

any short men either, not in

25:20

a long long time. This

25:26

isn't just about presidential elections,

25:29

and it isn't just about height. Across

25:32

the world, voters favor candidates

25:34

based on the most superficial characteristics

25:37

imaginable. One study

25:40

found that people were fairly good at predicting

25:42

the victor of an election for state governor

25:45

after being shown a brief piece of

25:47

video of a gubernatorial debate with

25:49

the sound turned off. Just looking

25:52

at the candidates seemed to be enough to judge

25:55

who voters would pick. In

25:57

fact, giving people audio two

26:00

actually made the predictions worse, presumably

26:03

because it distracted them from what mattered

26:05

appearances. Back

26:09

in Germany in nineteen oh six, Frau

26:12

Langerhans, the wife of Kirpernick's

26:14

mayor, George Langerhans, was completely

26:17

taken in by Wilhelm Voight's mannerisms.

26:20

She told a reporter he was

26:23

so grafted towards my husband, but

26:26

extremely polite to me. That

26:28

convinced me that he was a real officer.

26:32

You really have to feel for the mayor here. He's

26:34

not fooled, but there are ten soldiers

26:36

pointing their guns at him, and his wife

26:39

is falling for a con man who charms

26:41

the pants off her while yelling at him. Frau

26:44

Langerhans thought that Voit looked

26:46

and acted the part, as

26:49

did Corporal Muller. But

26:52

it's not just Muller and Frau Langerhans

26:55

who act like that. I'm not a doctor,

26:57

but I play one on TV. If your child had

26:59

a cough, she'd get just with the doctor orders

27:01

for your cough. An

27:04

advertising classic. Even

27:06

Wilhelm Voit wouldn't have been quite as Ordain

27:09

says to announce I'm not a captain.

27:12

I'm just wearing the uniform, and

27:14

yet the advertisements work.

27:17

We buy the cough syrup for the man

27:20

who tells us I only

27:22

look like a doctor. That

27:25

is how powerful appearances can be people

27:29

suffer every day from fraudsters,

27:32

using the playbook of Wilhelm Voit.

27:35

First, these fraudsters get the appearances

27:38

right. Maybe it's a text message

27:40

that looks like it's from your bank, the phone

27:42

numbers right after all. Or maybe

27:44

the doorbell rings and the man is standing there

27:47

with an official looking ID. Maybe

27:49

it's a smooth talking politician with

27:51

a good suit. Stanley Milgram

27:54

well understood the need to get the clothes right.

27:56

In a variation where the experimenter

27:58

didn't wear a lab coat, nobody

28:01

went to four hundred and fifty volts. Second,

28:06

the fraudsters put people into what psychologists

28:08

call a hot state. We

28:11

don't think so clearly when we're hungry or

28:13

angry or afraid, Wilhelm

28:16

Voit yelled at Corporal Muller. The

28:18

man on the phone told fast food managers

28:21

that the police were on their way, and Corporate HQ

28:24

wasn't happy. A politician who wanted

28:26

to put people into a hot state might announce

28:28

that the country was being taken over by

28:30

gangs and terrorists and that his opponents

28:33

should be locked up. Whatever

28:35

works. Third,

28:38

they pull the heist one small

28:40

step at a time. They start with the

28:43

request for information. You

28:45

are mus Jane Doe, aren't

28:47

you. I'm sorry to report that your

28:49

bank account has been compromised, mus Dough.

28:52

But just enter in your password and we'll

28:54

sort it all out. Give

28:56

us someone who looks or sounds

28:58

the part, apply a bit of fear,

29:01

anger, lust, or greed, and

29:04

men proceed in salami slices

29:06

from the reasonable to the insect,

29:09

so smoothly that we don't stop

29:12

to think. At

29:18

first, it looked as though Wilhelm

29:20

Voight would enjoy the fruits of his acting

29:22

skills in peace. But as

29:25

he relaxed with his bag full of money,

29:27

a former criminal accomplice of his saw

29:30

the reports of the daring heist

29:32

in all the newspapers and promptly

29:35

reported Voight to the authorities.

29:40

When four detectives burst into

29:42

Wilhelm Voight's apartment at six o'clock

29:45

in the morning, they found him

29:47

enjoying breakfast. I'm

29:49

afraid that the timing is a little

29:51

inconvenient. I should

29:53

like a moment to finish my meal. They

29:59

watched as Voit broke open

30:01

another crusty white roll spread

30:04

on a thick layer of butter, and

30:07

washed it down with his coffee. You

30:09

can't help, but like his audacity

30:12

excellent, I am

30:15

ready now, gentleman. At

30:17

trial, Wilhelm Voight became

30:20

a folk hero. The judge

30:22

sympathized with the way Voit had been treated

30:25

by the system. He gave him an unexpectedly

30:27

short sentence. Then he

30:30

took off his judge's cap and

30:32

stepped down to clasp Voit by

30:34

the hand. I visue

30:37

good heads, squild your peasant term

30:39

and beyond. The German

30:42

authorities felt that, in light of the popularity

30:45

of the Captain of Kirpernick, even

30:47

more ostentatious clemency

30:49

was required. They pardoned

30:52

him after a few months in jail. The

30:54

Kaiser himself was said to

30:57

have chuckled at the deed. Amiable

30:59

scoundrel, Voight had

31:02

statues erected, and wax works

31:04

were made of him, including one in Madame

31:06

Tusswords. In London, he was paid

31:08

to called his story so that people

31:11

could listen to him recount his deeds

31:13

on their gramophones. He

31:18

went on tour, signing photographs

31:21

of himself for money and posing

31:23

in his famous uniform. A

31:25

local restaurateur begged him to come

31:27

and dine as often as he wanted, free

31:30

of charge, knowing that his presence

31:32

would attract other customers. A

31:34

wealthy widow gave him a pension

31:36

for life, and he lived

31:39

happily ever after. Although

31:43

the more I think about how he

31:46

did what he did, and how much

31:48

harm has been done by those who followed

31:50

in his footsteps, the more

31:52

I wonder whether I've succeeded in

31:54

giving you the comedy that I promised.

32:13

You've been listening to Cautionary Tales

32:15

If you'd like to find out more about the ideas

32:17

in this episode, including links to our

32:20

sources. The show notes are on my website,

32:22

Tim Harford dot com. Cautionary

32:25

Tales is written and presented by me, Tim

32:28

Harford. Our producers are Ryan

32:30

Dilley and Marilyn Rust. The

32:32

sound designer and mixer was Pascal

32:35

Wise, who also composed the

32:37

amazing music. This

32:39

season stars Alan Cumming, Archie

32:42

Panjabi, Toby Stephens, and Russell

32:44

Tovey, with enso Celenti, Ed

32:47

Gochen, Melanie Gutteridge, Mercia

32:49

Munroe, rufus Wright and introducing

32:53

Malcolm Gladwell. Thanks

32:55

to the team at Pushkin Industries, Julia

32:58

Barton, Heather Faine, Mia LaBelle

33:00

Carlie Migliori, Jacob Weisberg

33:03

and of course the mighty Malcolm

33:05

Gladwell. And thanks to my colleagues

33:07

at the Financial Times, the B