When is a gift a gift? And when does it cross the boundary and become a bribe? We cannot ask the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to arbitrate on this vexed question, especially since the scandalous revelations sweeping through the highest echelons of sports in the past few weeks.
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch must now be wishing that he never had accepted any of the 'gifts' showered upon him in his long tenure as head of the world's most powerful sporting body.
Every little gesture made towards the IOC and Samaranch - by cities bidding to host this or that Summer or Winter Games, in the past and future - is now under the microscope.
While we in Hong Kong are not privy to what goes on in such exalted (and now corrupt) company, we at Off The Post can remember the time when we also had a brush with Samaranch when we saw for ourselves the venal sin of temptation being flaunted in his face.
It was last year, when Samaranch made a brief stopover in Hong Kong from South Korea, to give his seal of approval to the Hong Kong SAR Olympic Committee.
After a small ceremony, during which he was 'gifted' with a Chinese painting by Timothy Fok, president of the Hong Kong Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, Samaranch made his way to attend a press briefing.