Dear Prudence,
A close friend, “Sam,” and his girlfriend, “Emily,” are doing something truly terrible. She has a lot of student debt to pay off, so they have come up with a plan that she will date and marry someone rich, and he will pay off her student loans, and then she will break up with him to be with Sam after a few years. All the while they will be cheating on Mr. Rich together. Sam told me that he is not looking for advice. But he still wants to talk to me about this plan and how it is affecting him a lot. I do not want to talk about this. I think it is despicable to trick someone into marrying you and cheat on them. I don’t think the plan will work, and if it does work, I am not sure I want to continue being friends with this person. But he is still my friend, and I feel I should listen to his woes and try to support him because clearly something is wrong with his judgment right now.
Prudie, I just don’t want to talk about this, and I feel like soon I will explode and share my opinion on this in a nasty way. What should I do? I don’t want to throw away a close friendship of many, many years, but I do not want to know the details of this arrangement or meet the poor soul they are tricking. She is currently dating multiple people, and they said they have two prospects who are very interested in marriage!
—This Is Wrong, Right?