All about the unwanted, rewrapped gift

Whenever, I read in the classifieds column of someone wanting to hock an unwanted gift I think of the poor sod who gave it. There he is wrapping it up in colored paper and sticking a card to it with best wishes and all that and what does the recipient do, he puts an ad in the papers looking for buyers. Here is an unwanted gift, any bids please. Imagine the giver picking up the paper with the coffee in the morning and yawning back to bed. He scans the columns and his eye alights upon this legend: For quick sale, an ormolu clock with filigree work and silver etchings, unwanted gift, good as new. So, he shakes awake his wife. Look at this, he says, there is an ad for a clock just like the one we gave the Shankars, what a coincidence, maybe we could alert them and then they can have a pair of ormolus.
Yes, yes, she says, enthusiastically, that’s very thoughtful of you, let’s give them a call, they’ll be thrilled, they loved the one we gave them. So they call the Shankers and they say, about that clock...
And Shankar says, just name your price.., anything is okay, time is ticking away, hahaha... just take it off our hands, didyougetit, hands, off our hands.
And they say, no, no, we just called to say there is an ad in the paper for another clock like yours so we thought we’d alert you and you can then have a pair.
A pair, says Shankar, a pair, what would I want with a pair, I can’t stand the one we have now, that’s why I am hocking the flipping thing, who’s calling anyway?
This is Nick here. Oh hi, Nick, thanks for thinking of us, but no thanks, have you seen that monstrosity, it’s gross, what sort of klutz would give anyone such a gift, we haven’t stopped laughing all week, you have to see it to believe it, the clock’s got silver edging, you mean there are two of the same, what a gas.
No, says Nick, his voice sinking seventeen octaves, I believe there is only one, the one we gave to you for your anniversary, the one with silver edging on it.
There is this deadly silence and then Shankar goes into violent withdrawal. No, no, no, he says, this is a different clock, yours is a beaut, this is another thing an aunt gave us, you have no idea what a piece of kitsch it is, what made you think we’d be selling your gift to us, my goodness we treasure it, it’s unique.
Sounds very much like the one, we gave you, says Nick, sounding offended, if you did not like it you needn’t have pretended, we thought you really loved it.
We did, we do, we have it up on the wall, here ask Asha, she’s positively dippy about it. Now Asha comes on the line and does her bit. Nick, we love your clock, it’s hanging right up here, ticking away perfectly, first thing we see in the morning is your clock. Yes, says Nick, but it does sound very much like the clock in the ad, we just feel it would have been more honest to come out and say you thought it was lousy. Finally, Nick rings off and tells his wife he still suspects it is the same clock and he adds how indignant he is feeling considering it is an expensive instrument of precision and it is a bit of cheek putting it up for sale.
Yes, says his wife, but we didn’t pay for it, we got it as a gift from Reg and you thought it was hideous, ugly as sin, remember. That’s not the point says Nick, they don’t know that and it is still expensive and I think it was very graceless of them to shove an ad in the papers.
You mean they should have wrapped it up and presented it to someone else, right, she says.
Yes, he replies, that would have been the decent thing to do, you don’t go about spin such stuff in the papers.