Nothing unusual about greasing palms. But when you travel extensively, you notice there are certain rules and procedures. An etiquette of bribery, all summed up beautifully in this piece in The Economist, How To Grease A Palm.

What's clear from this piece is that the definition of corruption differs from person to person. Even the word baksheesh has a double meaning. Is it charity, or a bribe?

The same ambiguity runs the debate on bribery now.

There are parts of the Third World where bribery can be standard business practice. That's not as bad as it sounds. It's just how things work, and it's usually dressed up in another name. In the West, it's called networking and deal-making. More subtle than a brown paper bag, but the market-distorting effects can be the same. Witness the enmeshed network of lobbyists, corporate-controlled thinktanks, party machinery and personal trafficking in favours that landed the Republicans in trouble.

And that's the sort of ambiguity now driving the debate in Britain over the Blair Government's decision to drop the probe into whether BAE was slinging cash to secure big Saudi defence contracts.

So are bribes necessary to secure some business deals? Check some of the responses from the public on the BBC web site and you'll get the picture.

Think through the ambiguities and you are left wondering whether whether these sorts of issues are ephemeral events that make the headlines and then disappear, or whether they have broader implications for business and government.