(Strip Number 4449, Original Publication Date, 3 November 1984)
Panel 1: We find an angry Michael holding his trick-or-treat bag complaining that someone has been helping him- or herself to his stuff.
Panel 2: So far, he's missing a Whoopee bar, two red-hots, a licorice whip and at least seven caramels.
Panel 3: A sheepish looking John explains to wanting to 'help' Michael out because he had so much, he thought that he couldn't possibly eat it all.
Panel 4: When Mike correctly assumes that Daddy didn't think that he was keeping track, John looks like a gaffed trout.
Summary: John tends to have an inflated opinion of his own superior intellect while simultaneously assuming that everyone else is too stupid to know what he's planning. This sort of thinking explains the Housening because he thought that April would clearly be as gullible and stupid as Elly is; since April saw through him and behaved accordingly, John convinced himself that she was just being dramatic because there was no way she'd figured out what was happening.