On Naiveté and Plain Old Honesty

Just now, I had an encounter that reaffirmed my faith in the basic honesty of people. Living in Las Vegas, you would expect that I would have a native distrust of strangers who come up to me and ask for money. I've had a couple of teens approach me asking for change saying they had to make a call but didn't have any. Anyone wouldave thought a couple of quarters would be a pittance and just fork over the two bits, which I did.

But today, as I was waiting in front of my local library listening to some Talib Kweli
on my iPod, I was approached by an older gentleman who introduced himself as Steve, and asked if he could borrow at least a dollar, because he ran out of gas and needed to get from the West Charleston campus to an English 102 class in another. I was rummaging for some quarters myself because I wanted to make a call on one of the payphones just inside the library's dual sliding door entrances. I told him that
I'll see if I had any change I could give him, but it turns out I didn't, so I peeked in my wallet and the smallest I had was a ten dollar bill.

He offered to go inside the library and break it for me, and-in what seems on reflection to be a monumentally stupid thing to do-I gave him the ten bucks and said I'd wait outside while he asks one of the library clerks for change. As he went in, I felt that I did
something that I might regret-giving him the ten dollars.

I thought that he might have been lying, and was now chuckling to himself, thinking how easily he duped that shmoe who was still standing outside waiting for change that would never come. After a couple of minutes of kicking myself for being so stupid, Steve came out of the library and handed me a five, and five dollar bills. Again, he wondered if I could spare him some gas money. Because I was feeling pretty good that my naiveté wasn't taken advantage of, I asked him how much he would like to have. He said "Three dollars would just about cover it." and offered to meet me in the same spot tomorrow to pay me back. I said it was okay, and he didn't have to pay me back, and said "You're welcome." as he said thanks and waved goodbye.