Zeezrom set a trap to ensnare Amulek as Amulek preached to the people of Ammonihah.  “Behold, here are six onties of silver,” Zeezrom said, “and all these will I give thee if thou wilt deny the existence of a supreme Being.”

Amulek replied:  “O thou child of hell, why tempt ye me? … Thou hast lied before God unto me.  Thou saidst unto me—Behold these six onties, which are of great worth, I will give unto thee—when thou hadst it in thy heart to retain them from me; and it was only thy desire that I should deny the true and living God, that thou mightest have cause to destroy me.”  (Alma 11:22-25).

Amulek did not fall for the trap, but I have a story of a cattle rancher who did fall for a trap set for him.  I transcribed Bud Beeson's life history wherein he related this wonderful episode:

Each fall Bud's father was missing numerous calves, but oddly, the neighbor was weaning two calves for every one of his own cows.  Bud's father called the sheriff.  The sheriff caught one of the Beeson's little red heifer calves, made a slit in the hide of the calf's shoulder, and inserted a quarter under the skin.

That fall the sheriff paid a visit to the neighbor.  Pointing to the red heifer he asked, “Is that your calf?”

“She's got my brand on her,” the neighbor said.

“I'll ask you again,” the sheriff said.  “Is that your calf?”

“She's got my brand on her,” came the same answer.

The sheriff caught the calf, took out his knife, extracted the quarter, arrested the man, and the man went to prison.

A trap was set for me when I was a new sailor just arriving in Japan.  My medical record had preceded me to the ship, and I suppose that the ship's medic put out the word that a Mormon was coming aboard.  As I came up the gangplank and requested permission to come aboard, the sailor on duty asked, “Are you the Mormon?”

The next guy I met asked, “Are you the guy from Oregon that doesn't drink?”  The first four men that I met had similar questions.

I was the only member of the Church on the ship, but there was another man who belonged to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He went out of his way to befriend me, and offered to take me to Yokohama “to show me the sights” on my first day off duty.  On the third day of being in Japan we rode the train to Yokohama where I was taken straight to the bar district.  I saw sights I didn't care to see, and refused to enter any bars.  After wandering around a bit, my companion lost interest in the excursion and took me back to the ship.

Exactly one year later, as I was leaving the ship to return to the states, a sailor named Armstrong stuck out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for causing me to win a bet.  When you came on board there was a bet that you could be taken to Yokohama and brought back drunk.  I won the bet!”

People are watching you.  They know what your standards should be.

On another occasion I unwittingly sprung the trap without harm.  As a sailor on an Air Force Base going to security school in San Angelo, Texas, the instructor of the class, wanting to be popular with the students, began each session with a dirty joke.  I lowered my eyes, and found other things to look at and think about.  After a time the jokes stopped.

One day a classmate named Carlson said, “Do you know why Garrison doesn't tell jokes any more?”

“No, why?”

“It's because you won't laugh.”

Who knew that an individual could silently exert such power just by example?