Is cheating an innate characteristic of humans?

"Is that all you have?" I asked the son of the Indian Muslim owner of the little sundry shop a little distance from my residential area. Those bananas were a little too ripe and was not attractive to my sight.
The son nodded his head but the father quickly told me there is another batch of at the back of the shop. He got the son to get it out.

When I saw it it was still green; a little too green for my liking. But then, what he said next caused me to take some of it off his hands. He complained, "These bananas have been with me the last three days and they have not ripened yet. I wonder when they would ever ripen."

His exposure of that fact aroused my appreciation for his honesty. Seldom do sellers reveal information that can repel possible buyers from a sale. Yet here was one, although someone familiar with this buyer, who exposed the truth that those bananas would never ripen ever.

In reciprocation to such honesty. I bought it with the full knowledge that those bananas would decorate my table rather than become nutrient rich food for me. This morning, four days after the purchase, they were as green as ever. I went back there to look for another bunch of bananas. I confirmed the shopkeeper's worry that those bananas have not ripened yet but I was not at all annoyed with the fact as I was told that was the possibility.

Upon being told that, he informed that the bananas came from one of the villagers who has been frequenting his shop on and off. In fact, the shopkeeper was doubtful about their ability to ripen when he saw them as they were not only too green but extremely hard. But then, the owner insisted that they were sufficiently matured. "I have been planting and growing bananas for so many years. Certainly I would know whether bananas are matured enough to ripen or not," he claimed.

"I cannot believe he would cheat me, such an old man. So, I took it despite my doubts," he sadly informed.
"Well, it can happen," was all I could say then.

Has anyone of us never cheated in his life? It was a question that hung around me for the rest of the morning. I reached into my mind and searched for a time when I myself could have cheated. Our mind is protective and refuses to reveal things that might incriminate us. However, I managed to dig in deep enough to remember that during a class test in which the subject teacher's supervision was not enough to deter us from getting answers from the textbook, a lot of students surreptitiously did just that and I was one of them.

Of course, when it comes to bluffing, it is practised so often, people do not think much about it. Of course, sometimes to avoid having to reveal embarrassing information or happenings, we just had to bluff, what is termed as a white lie.

But to cheat; is that a basic characteristic of humans? How many times we have been cheated for financial gain? In fact where monetary gain is concerned cheating is so rampant that we are always on the alert for such a possibility. Complaints have often been heard about someone being overcharged or given inferior goods. Nowadays, we have a dangerous form of cheating where companies would supply transport which are not road worthy, thus resulting in road accidents. Is there an innate urge to cheat only subdued by our moral strength and ego?

Perhaps it is not so much the urge to cheat as it is greed.