Bad neighbours and non-existent punctuation

 Nittai HaArbeli, at Avot 1:7, teaches three things, one of which is  הַרְחֵק מִשָּׁכֵן רָע. This is pretty well universally translated as "distance yourself from a bad neighbour", a translation that makes good sense in the context of the teaching which immediately follows it ("do not befriend someone who is wicked"). The two teachings lean in the same direction, since each advises us to keep our distance, physically and metaphorically, from a bad influence.

It just struck me today that perhaps the two teachings were supposed to stand in apposition to one another. There is no standard punctuation in the Oral Law and one can therefore read the same words in different ways by simply injecting anachronistic punctuation marks in order to allow a different emphasis. Here, the words הַרְחֵק מִשָּׁכֵן רָע can be viewed quite differently by the insertion of a dash, giving a reading that looks like this: הַרְחֵק מִשָּׁכֵן -- רָע. This suggests the following: "Distance yourself from a neighbour? That's bad!" There is not to my knowledge any support for this reading, but it does chime in well with Hillel's injunction in the second perek (at Avot 2:5) that one should not separate oneself from the congregation/community.