ABSTRACT
In the intertwined nature of social life, people form new friendships at work and sometimes encounter former friends as work colleagues. If gifts are obvious and respected ingredients of friendship, they have, viewed with today's bribery gaze, become risky relationship components of professional life. In the case involving the moped money, it was the nurse who took the initiative by introducing proof of friendship to the court and the police. This chapter discusses two cases: "the moped money," which involved an assistant nurse, and "the luxury trip" involving some well-known politicians. Barbro, the caregiver, speaks of the special care relationship that developed into a rather complicated friendship. The situation surrounding the actual giving of the gift is described by Barbro in terms of a socially compelling ceremony. Marcel Mauss played with the double meaning of "gift" in Germanic languages, as present and as poison.
