People who borrow money from other people without plans to repay are probably the absolute worst people ever. It especially complicates matters when the lender is a friend. This might cause a rift in the relationship, which begs the question, is it even wise to lend money to friends?
On the one hand, you might help someone close to you who's in a rough patch. But on the other hand, it might mess up the relationship between you two, especially if the borrower has a sense of entitlement.
Empty Promises
Sometimes, being a good friend means helping out when your friend is caught in a pickle. But then, you may discover that the person you consider a friend isn't trustworthy. I mean, how can someone be so entitled that they feel comfortable never paying back a friend who lent you money?
u/supersimps lent her friend 20 bucks at a school event they attended together a few months ago. He didn't have money on him, and OP, trying to be a good friend, gave him some. When she asked him to go get the money from her wallet, she specifically told him to spend only half of the money.
Whether he didn't hear her, or he did but didn't care, who knows? What we do know is that he took and spent all the money.
She got mad, and when he saw she was, he promised to pay her back soon. Except five months have gone by and he still hasn't paid her back.
20 Bucks Isn't a Lot of Money?
It's important to know that both of them are 17 years old, so $20 probably means something to them.
Five months after that event, he still hasn't paid OP back her 20 bucks, which says a lot about the kind of friend he is. Now, it doesn't help that they still hang out together, and she sees him spending more than 20 bucks each time.
So, it isn't about the lack of money but more about the lack of integrity. Noticing this, she decided to ask him to return her money, even though she wasn't comfortable doing that. She did a couple of times, but he never returned it. This didn't end well. She lost her cool, and he actually got angry with her. He was the one in debt, but somehow, he was the one getting angry and storming off.
Not once did he apologize, explain, or try to be considerate about the fact that she lent him that money. In fact, when she brought up the fact he owed her, he said she was being a jerk for bringing it up so often.
Was she wrong for repeatedly asking him about her money?
No, It's OP's Money
The majority of the people who read her story don't think that she did anything wrong. They tried to offer proper advice and solutions to help OP get her money back.
u/Septemberwednesday advised OP to “take this as a learning moment” and then make sure she doesn't lend money out to people anymore, friend or not.
As some form of advice, u/woburnite gave OP a hint on how she can get her money back,
“Ask if you can ‘borrow' $20 from him sometime when you know he has it. There you go.”
That's funny and smart and might work. People think her friend is a jerk, and it's quite sad that it took her losing $20 to find out. Hopefully, she gets her money back and learns a valuable lesson while at it.
This thread inspired this post.
This article is produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Boloere Seibidor, fondly called B.S. is a Nigerian-based writer and poet. Her favorite topics to cover include music, especially Hip-Hop, film, lifestyle, and fashion. She's been published by Feral Journal, Fantasy Magazine, The Temz Review, and most notably, Wealth of Geeks. She enjoys romantic dinners, movie nights, and touring new sites. When she's not writing, she's delving back in time to the underground world of Hip-Hop, watching TikTok, or visiting the cinema.