Great riddle Sven! Been studying this one for two days with nothing gelling before tonight. First got the second word but wrong tense. Then the third and as soon as I corrected the tense of the second word, the title did give away the first word. Great fun as always.
Guess you noticed the stinky pinky stink. Dont really get the reasoning behind that decision. Never got the chance to say, "struggling/smuggling, Nice one!" FWIW I had intended lessoning as you thought and had naught/taught.