Early in the story, Hadleyburg is deemed as an "incorruptible town" but also admittedly that "throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to harden and solidify, and become part of their very bone"; thus creating a stage for a test of its citizens. When the town offends "a passing stranger, possibly without knowing it", the stranger decides to seek revenge, which would hurt as many individuals as possible, and for him he believed that the town-folk's greatest weaknesses lay in their beliefs that the town itself was so honest it was incorruptible. .
Having dropped off the note and a bag apparently containing $40,000 worth of gold coins at the Richards" house, the controversy and family disagreements immediately begin as it affects the Richards" relationship right away. While Edward thought of how that money could change their lives, he does proceed to take the letter to be printed in the paper to commence the investigation. However, when he and his wife Mary try and figure out who originally gave the $20 to the stranger to eventually spawn such a gesture, they cannot agree on a single person who would be worthy of such praise and fortune. When the Cox's were aware of the letter and bag, they too joined the began quarreling within their household over why Richards and then Cox had felt inclined that the publishing of the letter to the town had to be done right away instead of keeping the secret, and most likely the fortune, to themselves. Twain writes that "In both houses a discussion followed of a heated sort - a new thing; there had been discussions before, but not heated ones, not ungentle ones. The discussions tonight were a sort of seeming plagiarisms of each other" in which they argued about the rashness of their initial decisions to make public the fortune and letter. As time passes, arguments occur over whether the later believed Goodson, and others, deserved the praise from the stranger.
