Honesty and Your Electric Bill

Today I mailed in the reading on my electric meter. It may not sound like a dramatic opening statement, but think about this: no one in Germany comes to read my meter. Instead, I write down the numbers on the meter from the fusebox myself on a little preprinted postcard that has my account number written on it, and then send it back merrily to the authorities.

Happily, we have plenty of money stashed aside for our utility payments. Also, we know that when we move out, the reading will be taken by our landlords and the Rechnung (bill) will then be settled, so there is no point in deception. (By the way, that statement: "There'll come a reckoning!" -- I think it must really mean, "There'll come a Rechnung!" in the sense of "He who dances must pay the piper.)

What if, however, I were going to live here for 30 or 40 or 70 years, presumably until I died of old age or became so senile that I would no longer care about the electric bill? Are there Germans who note their reading on a scrap of paper inside the fusebox, and come next 1st of September, perhaps artificially lower the reading by a believable amount -- say, 10% or so -- and continue to do so, year after year? Do their families, after the funeral, come to settle Opa's account and discover the electric bill fraud, all in arrears? Do families short on cash play this game, hoping that the next year they will be able to compensate?

There seems to be no delicate way to ask this question. It either seems to imply that I think Germans are likely to cheat the system, or casts a shadow on me for having these dark and deceptive thoughts. After all, with only 6000 people in the village, the last thing I need is gossip about that American lady who falsifies her electric bill! -- especially since I don't!