A small glinting object in the bin caught your eye. It was a silver-colored ring, though a thin layer of rust covered it, diminishing its shine. A piece of string was tied to it with a small piece of paper attached. Lifting it up, you saw that the paper read "Price adjusted, please speak to cashier." With a shrug of your shoulders, you walk over to the counter with the ring in hand.
"What's the deal with this ring?" you ask the old man behind the till. He peers foreword and adjusts his glasses, a look of recognition crossing his face.
"Ahh, that. You see son, that's an old wishing ring."
"A wishing ring? Are you serious?" you ask skeptically.
"Yes, but there's a catch. The previous holders of this ring used it too often and too flippantly, making hundreds of wishes and reversing them every week. Eventually, the ring's power began to wane, and it ended up in my shop."
"So it doesn't work anymore?"
"It does, but in an unusual way. The ring can no longer simply make things from thin air, or create changes willy-nilly. Instead, the ring has to take from others in order to grant wishes. I've taken to calling it 'the Ring of Theft.' If you were to, say, wish for a nicer car, the ring would exchange your car with that of someone else nearby, provided they have a nice car. It doesn't matter how far away you are from people-the ring will always take from the nearest person. It'll even take from multiple people, if necessary. If you wished to be rich and there wasn't a rich person near you, it would take money from everyone nearby until you're considered rich. People won't notice what's been taken from them, unless if you wish them too. I should note that the ring generally tries to satisfy the wish using the closest and smallest number of people possible, however. Going back to our earlier example, when you wish for a nice car, you'll get the car belonging to a person who highly values their car, even if it's not what you would consider nice. You might expect a Rolls Royce, but get a PT Cruiser instead. By the same token, any time you make a wish for someone else they'll gain something of yours."
The shopkeeper finished his speech, and you were silent. This was all a lot to take in. Seeing your confusion, the shopkeeper said "Go ahead and try it. Put the ring on your finger and wish for something. Just say or think the words 'I wish' before you do."
"Okay..." you slipped the ring on. "I wish I was taller," you say. Immediately you shoot up, going from your unimpressive 5'10" to 6'3". Meanwhile, the shopkeeper shrank behind the counter. His expression didn't change as he lost five inches in height.
"Holy crap, it worked!" you exclaimed. "Did you wish for something?" the shopkeep asked. "Yeah, did you not-"it was then that you remembered what he said. He didn't know what happened, and wouldn't unless if you wished for him to. This seemed a little immoral. He was about 5'8" previously, but now he was even shorter.
"So, do you want the ring or not?" the shopkeeper asked.
"Well, I don't know. Isn't it kind of mean to steal things from people? It feels like you could radically alter someone's life with this ring, possibly for the worst."
The shopkeeper shrugged. "Perhaps, but if the people you're stealing from don't remember what they lost, is it really a bad thing?" he asked, resting his elbows on the counter. Previously, he had to lean over to do this, but now he stood straight up while doing so.
"I guess not. How much for the ring?"
"I'll let you have it for free. Just promise to be smart with it, and come back to the store if it runs out of juice. Like I said, it's really worn out, so there's a non-zero chance it'll stop working. It might stop 10 years from now, or a month from now. Hard to say."
"Well, thank you sir! I'll keep in touch." The shopkeeper hands you his business card and you walk out the store, suddenly aware of how close your head is to the top of the doorframe. 'Whoops, forgot to give that guy his height back.' "I wish I was back to my normal height," you say as you walk away from the shop. However, at that exact moment, a mom walked by with her five year old daughter. The kid was just barely closer to you than the shopkeeper, so she shot up five inches in height, now waist-level with her mom. You didn't notice this as your back was turned, however.
Your mind is filled with the possibilities of what to wish for, until you land on something that makes the most sense. "I wish..."