For Free

At Cultural Offering, a fable that is not really a fable. 

I've run across these:

"Well, we knew we were going to go with [Firm X] but we asked for some other proposals because we're required to have at least three."

"We know the Request for Proposal outlined a pretty extensive project but now that the proposals have been submitted we can tell you our budget. We only have $10,000."

"We'd like our Training Officer to sit in on all of your workshops so she can take extensive notes."