Two brothers, in their mid 20's, have a dying grandmother. They both expect a large inheritance from her. But someone causes one or both brothers to loose it.

One brother is a drunken slacker with no job or home, who lives on the couch of whoever will let him.

The other is very clean, uptight and easily panicked. He has a good, if not particularly lucrative job and is generally an upstanding young fellow.

The problem is, it's the good brother who needs to lose the inheritance. Also, the grandmother lives about a day's drive away so we'd prefer if it's something that can happen over distance, not with the brothers right in front of her.

It has to work with another important plot element that has been plaguing my writing partner and me the past couple weeks but I'm unwilling to talk about that here at the moment so I just want as many ideas as possible that we can play with and tweak and get inspired from.

Well, the good brother could marry someone that the grandmother doesn't like. It could be someone that is of "low-class" or something like that. Also, the "bad" brother could have drugs but be on probation so the "good" brother could claim that they are his. When his grandmother finds out she could be so disappointed in him that she doesn't leave him any money.

Or someone could break into his house and he could shot the robber or whoever (it could be a big misunderstanding or something) and he could kill the person who broke into his house. He could have been arrested and then the grandma dies and takes him out of the will and then he could be released because it was an act of self-defense. (Also, this breaking in to the house could really happen in different situations. He could be walking home and see some girl getting raped and try and stop it and the rapist could have a gun and the "good" brother could grab it and shoot the rapist or something.)

The "good" brother could decide to major in something that the grandma doesn't agree with. Like maybe he decides to be an artist or something or go into the military and that could be something that the grandmother doesn't agree with.

Or the "good" brother could have an ex-girlfriend who got pregnant (or someone he had a one night stand) and never told the "good" brother. Everyone could find out.

I assume he's been in the will all along, until "something happens", right? Otherwise it could just be that good or bad, Grandma prefers the bad boy.

Maybe Grandma finds out he's gay - or someone makes her think that he is, and she won't believe him when he says he's not. Or, what about the parents. They're in between Grandma and him. Why is that? Maybe they have done something that is forcing him to choose sides, between them and Grandma. Or between mom and dad and he sides with the one that Grandma would NOT side with. Or even that he just doesn't side with one or the other, when Grandma wants him to.

Maybe one of Grandma's friends offers him a job, but he doesn't want it. He likes his current, albeit low-paying job. Or offers him a wife, but he doesn't particularly want to marry her.

We are deciding to leave the parents out of it. We just figure the grandmother thinks the four grandkids (the brothers and two girls who are either cousins or sisters of the brothers) need the money for then the parents.

And yes, he has been in the will all along until this thing happens.