When businessman Rajat Gupta was sent to jail in the US for insider trading, many rich and want-to-be-rich Indians (no one else had really heard of him) were shocked. Not just because a rich man had gone to jail but because a “good man” had been sent to jail. This is because in India, rich and good people rarely get sent to jail. This is not to suggest that the justice system is better anywhere else; it’s just that we are not used to it. We are used to poor people going to jail, of course. That doesn’t surprise anyone. But a rich and “good man” going behind bars? How bad is that?

What determines a good man is unspoken and unknown actually.  Like in the days of greetings cards, if you bought them from CRY or WWF or UNICEF, you probably qualified. It implies that you are kind and giving. In that sense they’re right. Gupta gave advice to a friend. The problem was that his generosity was against the law.