Space Amazon Bad Stuff

[Grax]

I am trying to make sure I understand the bad stuff on the Space Amazon in Star Munchkin.

The munchkinly foe I was playing was suggesting that he had the option to keep all of his items and just lose the levels (he was level 1 at the time). The argument was that you HAD to lose the items, and only if you did not have enough value in items would you lose the levels. In my reading of the card, it never give you an option.. You only lose the levels if you do not have enough value in items to discard.

SO my question is -
When failing to run from Space Amazon with More or Less gold worth of items, do you have the choice to go down levels and keep what you've got, or do you lose up to the stated value THEN only lose the levels if it is not enough.


Thank you in advance