I had a friend who was buying a piece of property that had been subdivided off of a family estate, and measured out with the traditional so-many paces from thus-and-such tree or rock. The house, which was supposed to be in the center of the property, turned out to be almost at the very edge of it. When the surveyor released his findings, the family was convinced that somehow he was part of a plot to cheat them out of their land. (She didn't go through with the purchase.)