Some years ago a wealthy man tried to sell a block of land in an exclusive part of New York City. It was a hundred feet long but only five feet wide, and his neighbours, realizing no-one else would want it, would only offer him a rock bottom price. So the owner decided to get even. He had a house specially built for that block. It was five feet wide and a hundred feet long. Each room was barely wide enough for a single piece of furniture. But he moved in and, despite the discomfort and his neighbour’s protests, lived there the rest of his life.
However, the only person who really suffered was himself, and so the house became known as “Spite House.” It, and at least eight others like it, still stand as monuments to the truth that people who set out to annoy their neighbours, usually only succeed in annoying themselves.