The immense virtual market of eBay has its own version of Dorian Gray: an atheist student from Chicago who decided to sell
his soul on the Web. Emerging from the devil's corner: an ex-
evangelical priest, who placed a bid for 504 dollars. The offer from Hemant Metha, studying at DePaul University, included a clause; for every dollar of the final
price, there must be contributed an hour of church service. Metha, 23, is not a believer, but revealed in his post on eBay that something was missing from his life. 41 people responded to his desperate and unusual online request, but it was ex-evangelical preacher from Seattle Jim Henderson who made an offer in the auction, and who bought Metha and his soul to embark him upon a journey that was just as much spiritual as eccentric.
Instead of imposing the 50 hours of mass stipulated in the notice, the clergyman in fact asked Metha to participate in ten religious services of his choice and to contribute his experience towards a book that he was writing for Random House. eBay teaches us this: even the soul has a price.