I'm an idiot.

G

Games and Else

New member
So yesterday I went to a bar to watch the game and had a few beers. I came back home at around 11pm, and proceeded to lay on my couch with my girlfriend. Around 12:30, I was playing a few laps of gran turismo 4 when someone knocked on the door.

It was a guy in the 30's-40's. He started explaining that he lived three doors down, that he was a manager for Petro-Canada (gas station), that his girlfriend had gone to work with their car and that his wallet/keys were still inside the car. He went to his babysitter to get his young child, but then he realized that he had forgotten his keys to come home and so he took the kid back to the baby sitter. Now he was stranded outside and he needed to take the taxi to his job, where he had a double of his keys. Whatever.

So at first I was suspicious, but after a while of talking to him I told him I would go to the bank nearby to withdraw 20 $. He said "I'll give you 40 when I come back", I said nah it's cool, just give me 20. I gave him the money and he told me he would be back around 1am. Of course, he never came back. I called at the gas station and they never heard of him.

I'm an idiot. I'll never be nice to anyone, ever again.
 
Ehhh, it's $20 and if he told you that big song and dance he probably need it more than you did.

Next time just say "sorry dude, I'm tapped out" and shut the door.
 
don't feel bad for being duped, feel good because you were willing to help a fellow human being. Even if they lied to get it, your heart was in the right place and that's really what matters. Like Uber said; it's only $20 and he probably needed it more than you did.
 
That sucks, but I think everyone has had their kindness taken advantage of at one point in time.

I agree with Tostig though, it's the thought that counts, even if it didn't turn out right.
 
I'm going to disagree with this. I'm all for charity, but it's going to be charity of my choosing and be verifiable that it's going to those who need it. I'd have my doubts whether this guy 'needed' a $20 in the sense that he 'needed' a drink, or whether he actually needed transportation or food. Hell, I'd call and pay for a cab for someone or give them something to eat, but I'm not going to hand out cash so some stranger can get lit on my buck. If he's so damn needy, he should need his ass into employment.
 
In principle I agree; we give to charities fairly regularly (CP comes by a couple times a year and picks up our donations). But even if I do automatically assume the worst about a person in this kind of situation, I decided that I'm going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. I don't like thinking everyone is fucked up, cracked-out and trying to scam money for meth.
 
Eh, I'd have felt better giving him money and getting ripped off than telling him he was a liar and him turning out to be my neighbor.

I've given money to people in tough situations a few times in the past, and in most cases the cost of getting ripped off is easier for me to swallow than the idea of being a cold, heartless, stingy asshole to someone who seriously needs some help.

I gave some money to some guy taht was stranded in my town a couple of years ago... I was out of a job at the time and I was out looking for a job. Some guy rolls up as Im walking to my car in a parking lot and said he'd wash my car for $5. I said no. He told me a sob story about being a painter and painting some guy's business and he (He was ranting about some Indian (India) family ripping him off) didnt get paid after he finished everything. He didnt have enough gas money to get back home to FL or even eat anything, and he was driving a big U-haul truck and he did smell like paint...

I decided to give him a $20 because I believe in karma, the dude was astonished. He said everyone he'd talked to so far had told him to go fuck himself and he looked like he was about to cry. He noticed my long hair and asked me if I played guitar, and we actually talkedl ike 30 minutes about guitar playing and he was some kind of guitar-tech dude and had all kinds of frankly unlikely stories about working with all these old 80s shredders.

Even though I dont know whether I completely believe anything he said, much less the guitar stories on their own, but he seemed like a guy that was a little down on his luck, and I decided to give him another $20 just for the interesting conversation.

Perhaps it was a waste of money and maybe he ran downtown to grab some more crack rock, I dont know. But I do believe in karma and I ahd been out of work for 3 months at that point. A week later I started my new job for an application I put in that afternoon. So whos to say it didn't pay off in some superstitious cosmic sense?

It's all superstition and therefore down to chance really. But I'd rather get ripped off for $40 and feel like I did something to help out someone who was down on their luck. I figure it'll come back to me at some point. :thumbsup:
 
dirtybird's got the right idea. i can't go around believing everyone else is a pile of shit i shouldn't associate with. i'd rather think most people are more or less human and humane. Have you ever done something nice for a complete stranger without being asked or getting something in return other than a thank you? There's something odd about the sensation; it's something i enjoy.
 
Dude I'm nice and caring as fuck, always thinking about others, and I'd never loan a total stranger $20.
 
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