Showing their true colors

My dad and I owned a single axle soft top trailer. A befriended couple asked if they could use it for the weekend to transport some items for their daughter who was going to move.

Although we generally didn’t like to loan equipment, due to some bad experiences, we couldn’t refuse their request.

A few days later they returned the trailer with severe damage. They told us that he encountered some bad weather and a big gust of wind had flipped it over.

Nobody got hurt and there was no damage to his car, it could have been a lot worse.

“Just get it repaired and send us the bill’” they said. And we had no reason to doubt we would get reimbursed. After all, we were friends.

We took it to a shop and got it fixed. The top needed to be replaced and some other work had to be done in order to align the chassis.

A few weeks later my dad called them to let them know that the repair bill had come in. It was suddenly pretty quiet on the other side of the line when dad mentioned that the amount was $1500.

“Ok, well take care of it,” dad heard him say. They didn’t. In fact, we never saw or heard from them again.

And that’s where the friendship ended. We had known them for many years, and it took an unfortunate mishap for them to show their true colors.

Of course, it was a disappointment as well as costly. However, we concluded that it was their loss. We shrugged it off and moved on.