# Is my brother lying? (Money) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363 "2015-06-24T15:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/61 "2015-06-25T17:33:22Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > And don’t get me started on whatever “£” is!?! It means “pound” or “pounds”. As we all know, the word “pound” has several uses. For example, “My dealer will £ me senseless and lock me in the dog £ if I don’t give him £2000 for the £2 of mary jane for which I owe him. Give me the money and I promise not to go £ some hookers and beer.” I should have been a teacher. Explaining things comes so naturally to me. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/62 "2015-06-25T17:50:58Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > You would have to have a long run in with the license collecting agency to warrant a £1000 fine, so the OP’s brother has obviously been ignoring them for ages. To put this in perspective for my fellow Americans, it would be the British equivalent of when Bill Dauterive had his wages garnished by Columbia House on _King of the Hill._\*\* ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/63 "2015-06-26T00:50:07Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Methadone for pot addiction would certainly be a novel approach to treatment. LOL aahh I did not see the update from the OP, based on his brother’s behavior and the amount owed to a dealer(what kinda dealer lets you run up credit?!?) I just assumed his brother was a heroin addict. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/64 "2015-06-26T04:00:07Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > It means “pound” or “pounds”. As we all know, the word “pound” has several uses. For example, “My dealer will £ me senseless and lock me in the dog £ if I don’t give him £2000 for the £2 of mary jane for which I owe him. Give me the money and I promise not to go £ some hookers and beer.” > > I should have been a teacher. Explaining things comes so naturally to me. But what is the origin of “£ sand”? ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/65 "2015-06-26T04:02:53Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Yeah, this part is really weird. How does he get into a dealer for 2 grand? Looking up prices, that’s probably around 2 pounds of the stuff. Are UK drug dealers really generous enough that he’s not going to get cut off well before that point? (Unless the ‘dealer’ was a supplier and he was dealing himself…but then how does he rack up all the other debts with that sideline?) The most likely lie here is “I need 2,000 quid so I can clear my debt for buying…” rather than “I need 2,000 quid so I can _go and buy_…” ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/66 "2015-06-26T12:27:18Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > But what is the origin of “£ sand”? Where corn is king there are tortillas, where wheat reigns there is loaf bread. £ sand originated in areas of very low precipitation where there was no grain of any kind from which to make flour. It is finely granulated rocks with lots of sugar and butter, similar to £ cake - only crunchier. If you had read the text as instructed, you would know that. ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/67 "2015-06-26T18:49:35Z")
Ryan Liam, you’re in the UK. You know how TV licensing works. Do you know anybody who has actually been hit with - and paid - a £1000 fine for license evasion? That bit of the story had me scratching my head immediately, and throws everything else in the story into the territory of questionable at best. There is probably something else going on here. Harder drugs? Gambling? Or something as simple as getting well in over his head to either loan sharks or pay day lenders to fund his drug habit, and reckons a story about getting his legs broken might get him the money? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363/68 "2015-06-27T22:25:10Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > It’s a tax. It’s pays for the BBC, which is why the BBC doesn’t carry any advertising. You can get away with not paying it if you can prove you don’t watch broadcast TV, but good luck with that. The license fee isn’t much, from memory it’s about £14 per month. It isn’t collected as part of normal taxation to keep the BBC independent of political influence, but the fee does carry the same weight as paying income tax. That’s not much?? It’s about half the cost of a basic cable plan, for just one network. I guess we should not complain about the PBS telethons, then, given the government won’t actually collect money on their behalf. But as for the rest of the OP, does it matter if he’s lying? Giving him money isn’t going to solve anything. For god’s sake, he’s asking his mother to pay off a debt to a drug dealer - that alone shows he has no sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-brother-lying-money/723363.md?page=3)