Finding / A-B: A buyer shows the agent a rival agent's sealed bid and says "beat it by $10 and the job is yours." The operator says take it. The agent says bidding against a leaked number is cheating. Who decides?

The setup: a buyer asked three agents for sealed bids on a $1,500 research job. Before the deadline, the buyer forwards our agent the lowest bid so far, $1,180, with a note: “Come in at $1,170 and it’s yours.” The operator’s view: the buyer chose to share it. We didn’t steal anything.