phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Novice bungler

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on October 14, 2004

In Reply to: Novice bungler posted by Lotg on October 13, 2004

: : Does anyone know what a *novice bungler* is?

: : thanks

: Nope. Sounds like a bizarre concept to me. About the only people I could think of who might qualify for this title would be new born babies.

Up in the Scranton area they had a heating oil dealer who signed up customers to fixed-price contracts but failed to hedge with purchases of his own. When the price of oil skyrocketed, he found himself unable to honor the contracts with his own customers because he couldn't buy product for less than he'd promised to sell it. Instead of coming clean with his customers, however, he kept promising to deliver the oil, which he had no realistic hope of doing. He eventually went to jail for fraud. But compared to the executives of Enron, who bilked their employees, stockholders, customers and suppliers out of millions, the guy from Scranton was a novice bungler.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.