Two wrongs don't make it right !

Betaal and Vikram had not met in a while. Both were traveling and taking care of independent stuff.

So after a few days when the met, Betaal was in a quizzing mood.

Betaal: Vicky ! How have you been ?

Vikram: Great ! Glad to be back together.

Betaal: I ve a puzzle for you to solve.

He goes on !

"I hired two young men in 2006. From the same company. Same grade. Hired both of them on the same date. For this puzzle lets name them Mahesh and Suresh.

Both of them were supposed to join on 11 Nov 2006. And because they could not be relieved from their previous company, they had to postpone the joining dates to 25th December of 2006.

As you we know we do give employees stock option of our company on joining which are priced by the board after the joining date of the company. Both of them had same number of stock options at joining.

Board meeting happened on 19th Nov by which time both Mahesh and Suresh did not intimate their delay in joining. So, all there options were priced at USD 19 (the value on that day).

But they joined late. And technically the pricing now is before their joining date. The next board meeting happened on 27th Feb 2007.

The price of the stock was 27 USD.

HR process figured out the illegal option pricing done for Suresh. And made the original stock price void and made it 27 USD per share.

For some reason, it missed Mahesh, who had the exact same situation. Now, after almost 2 years, Suresh demands the difference between 19 USD and 27 USD. What should we do ?

Stock Admin suggests - do him a CAP award for the amount.

HR suggests - Roll back Mahesh's pricing now. But Mahesh stocks now have started vesting and he has already sold some as they are in gain.

What would you do Vicky ? "

It sounded complex. Vikram thinks about it for a while.

Vikram: I guess we need to convince Suresh that what is done for him is right although he is set to lose money. Its going to be difficult. From his prospective its not fair. From a system prospective, it is not fair because of a mistake. Some wrong doing on someone's part.

Doing another wrong thing would not make it right.

Betaal smiled and got up to walk to his cabin.

While going away he said - "Thats the right thing to do Vicky ! Thats the right thing.

However, if Suresh is someone you want to bet on, if Suresh is someone worth fighting for, I would give him the CAP and make it up for him. I would do the wrong thing if he is worth it"