I had a trumpet player who worked for me as a carpenter as his day job and he used to go to a lot of funerals which I had to pay him for while he was at the funeral. I finally called him on it and he leveled with me that he would go to the funerals of people he barely knew and take his trumpet with him. People would pass the hat and he would play taps as the casket was lowered into the ground, said he usually made around $300 for 10 minutes work and then he would go to the wake, eat till he was stuffed and often wind up taking home one of the grieving relatives. I pointed out to him that I was also paying him while he was at the funeral and that if he did it again for someone who wasn't a direct relative I would fire his ass. He thought I was unfair.

We had everything in common, until........