Here’s an ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

Sean is standing in line to buy tickets to a concert he really wants to see.  He is set to buy four tickets.  There is a rule that no one can buy more than six tickets.  A man comes up and down the line and offers to pay Sean $100 if he buys two extra tickets for him. Should Sean do it?  This case comes from a column in the New York Times written by Randy Coehn called “The Ethicist.”  

Answer

I was having dinner with friends of mine, rabbis, and they had opposite answers to this question.

[a] The first said, “He is allowed six tickets.  He buys six tickets.  He has broken no law.  If he makes some money, good.”

[b] Rabbi Number Two said, “It is wrong. First, he is breaking the rule of Dina d/Malkhuta Dina, the law of the land is the law.  The limits on the number of tickets you could buy were set up to prevent scalpers.  Scalpers resell tickets to people at high prices.  If this person is a scalper (and the $100 says he well may be), you are helping him break the law.  Helping another person break the law (even if you make money) is a violation of the principle of lifnai ever, ‘you shall not put a stumbling block before the blind,’”

If he was just a person who wanted tickets without standing in line, he was stealing the time of people who stood in line.  Stealing time is also a violation of the “You shall not steal” commandment.

Using no texts but just logic, Randy Cohen said that it was wrong to buy the tickets.  Whether you go with Rabbi no. 1, who says you are within the law, or Rabbi No. 2, who says you are breaking the values of the law, is a matter for your own conscience.  

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge 3”, pgs. 12-13

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver