Pigeon racing is a lousy, greedy, and often unlawful activity. One thing that it is not is kind to birds.
I'm still pretty self-centered, greedy and angry.
Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.