Do you succumb to temptation?

I wanted to write a quick review of a book that I recently read. It is titled “The Devil and Miss Prym” by Paulo Coelho. I typically enjoy thrillers, but this book was extremely different as it is about a mysterious man who goes to a remote village to test out his theory. Troubled by past experiences, the man believes that people are inherently bad. He uses this as a justification for all that has happened in his life. Anyway, he reaches the city and buries eleven large gold bars. He then finds a young lady that lives in the village and tells her of his plan as he shows her a few of the gold bars He tells her that if the town commits a murder within the next week, the gold is theirs. They could murder anyone, old or sick. Either way it would prove his theory true. However, if she decides to keep quiet, then he will turn the tables on her and tell the village himself of his plan and that the girl kept it a secret, endangering her life. This would also prove true, that she was the one who would be filled with deceit. “Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.” This village is resisting the technological advances of the world around them, and these gold bars would ultimately save the village. The girl eventually tells the town of the man’s sinister proposition and they go to work, deciding what would be best. I’ll stop the summary in case someone actually wants to read this book. The book brought up many questions in my head, such as whether I believe this theory to be true. I personally believe that people are inherently good, but through society and a series of experiences we learn bad behaviors and actions - we are born as blank slates, armed with only basic human instincts. These instincts arent bad and allow us to accept. However, over time we may develop certain biases or tendencies that can be categorized as bad.
The book is well written and effectively captures the dilemma of the girl, as she debates over whether she should tell the village or not. The author does a great job of building tension as the story develops, although I felt that he really lost me because the story was quite anticlimactic. After a great plot and build-up to the final scene, it seemed as if the author simply did not know how to effectively end the book. Overall, it is a very different book with a plot that is extremely unique. The topic of temptation really made me stop and think as I read each page and made me wonder what I would do in each situation. If we disregard the ending, I would recommend this book for the philosophical and spirtual questions it brought up and made me wonder how others would handle the situation or how they felt about the statement that one of the main character make when he says that people are natually bad.