A cheap lesson learned
In the course of some volunteer work I do, I come into contact with a lot of people down on their luck. He introduced himself as "Timothy, like in the Bible." (That should have been my first clue).

He recently arrived in town and was looking for connections for work, housing, etc. He asked me if I could take him to Wal-Mart to get a razor, soap, etc as he said the shelter he was staying in didn't provide them. Knowing better than to give him cash, I drove him to Wal-Mart and took him to the $1 travel supplies aisle. He kept trying to lead me down the other aisles to buy more stuff, and I'll confess he got a $7 bottle of aftershave off me. I was getting annoyed with this dude, and getting more on my guard.

As we were walking past the pharmacy, he suddenly said "you know, there's something else I wonder if I could get you to get me." I looked over at the condoms and told him "Bud, if I'm going pay for anyone to get laid, it will be me." He laughed and said he wanted cigarettes. Getting pissed off at him, I told him "Looks like you're gonna run out of smokes, buddy." All told, his stuff came to about $25.

As we were getting into the car, he said "let me hold on to this receipt, so I know exactly how much I owe you."

Thicko me: "Uh, sure, that'd be good."

The next night I picked him up to go to a chili supper, and he flashes this wad of cash around saying how someone else had taken him to get clothes that day, and he found - amazingly - $25 in the parking lot. Big dumb old me: "Wow, that's an amazing coincidence."

It seriously took me months (after Timothy was long gone, of course) to get it that he'd returned all the stuff I'd bought him.

Okay, so it's not ruinous, but I still blush a little at my gullibility.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 19:02, Reply)