Never Lend to a Friend: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

It's coming up to rent day and [[Alice and Bob|Alice]] is a little short. Bob, on the other hand, has money to spare, and casually offers to lend her the cash - after all, what's a few quid [[The Power of Friendship|between friends]]? No need for collateral or payment deadlines, [[The Power of Trust]] will prevail!

 

* Alice is slow to pay the money back. Bob starts off understanding, but gets more and more annoyed the longer it goes on and the more his own financial pressures build up.

** Bob assumes this will happen and starts pestering Alice for the money unreasonably - she's already paid it out, and can't return it yet, and her good friend has suddenly transmogrified into the [[All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks|All Devouring Black Hole Loan Shark]]!

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] ==

* Cosigning a car lease for an old work acquaintance is what sets the events of [[Kaiji]] into action. And, of course, {{spoiler|the guy he did it for shows up and proceeds to die, ensuring Kaiji will never get re-payed for the headache.}}

 

== [[Film]] ==

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In [[George Eliot]]'s ''[[Middlemarch]]'', Fred Vincy casually persuades Mr. Garth to underwrite a debt, assuming that he will easily pay it back from an expected inheritance. When this [[Passed Over Inheritance|doesn't work out as expected]], he tries to scrape up the money owed but comes short, forcing the Garths to give up their life's savings which were earmarked to fund their children's apprenticeship. Fred is guilt-torn, but later, when Mr. Garth's fortunes improve, it's he who gives Fred the means to redeem himself and repay the money.

* In one of [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''Sylvie and Bruno'' books, the Professor tries to explain the meaning of the word 'convenient' with a poem about two men, Peter and Paul, which begins with one deciding as a gesture of friendship to lend the other fifty pounds. Said poem takes this trope to its extreme, as the lender does not find it "convenient" to provide the money until well after the date in which the lendee is forced to ''pay it back''... and after the lendee is reduced to homelessness... and while the lender still hasn't found it convenient to lend the original money at the end of the poem, he has decided in his magnaminosity to lend fifty ''more'' pounds! Which the lendee rejects, exclaiming that "it would not be convenient!"

* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]:'' Ray & Debra lend Robert money after visiting his run-down bachelor pad, but Ray gets upset when Robert goes to Las Vegas.

* ''[[Frasier]]'': Frasier lends Roz some money to help her through single motherhood, but calls her spending into question when he sees luxury items in her shopping bag. Turns out they were all justified expenses (a gift from her mother, a store credit for a return, etc.) apart from one (a bottle of perfume) which she got to treat herself.

* On ''[[Cheers]]'', Diane borrows $500 from Sam to buy a first-edition Hemingway. Sam says he's not going to expect her to pay it back, but then Carla eggs him on by pointing out Diane's expensive clothes, lunches, etc. Finally Diane gives Sam the book as collateral; [[Broken Treasure|he drops it in the bathtub while reading it]]. A buyer offers Diane $1200 for the book, and Sam is forced to outbid him.

** Another ''[[Cheers]]'' example: Norm suddenly comes into money and Sam starts harping on him about his bar tab. When Norm buys a boat with the money, Sam loses it and starts yelling at Norm. Norm reveals that the boat is for Sam for being such a good and patient friend.

* Several examples in ''[[Friends]]'':

'''Phoebe:''' Oh no, no, no. I learned never to borrow money from friends. [[Noodle Incident|No, that's why Richard Dreyfuss and I don't speak anymore.]] }}

** And:

'''Joey:''' And I think he would tell you it was a mistake. }}

** While in an inversion, Chandler spends an episode desperately trying to lend Joey money, but Joey doesn't want to owe him anything - presumably because of this trope. [[Hilarity Ensues|And thus was born]] [[Calvin Ball|the Game of Cups.]]

* Partly [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and partly averted in an episode of [[Doogie Howser, M.D.]]. Vinnie asks Doogie for some money, and at first Doogie refuses because of this trope. He ends up agreeing, but it doesn't cause any problems between them and it never gets mentioned again.

* A LOT of the cases on ''[[Judge Judy]]'' involve the plaintiff suing a former friend for an unpaid loan. The defendant's usual defense will be "it was a gift, not a loan," such as in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpRKwgEQWhs this case]. Judge Judy almost always rules in favor of the plaintiff, as well as giving them the advice: "Never lend money to anybody. As soon as you lend money, you become the bad guy."

** Another episode has Frank and Hot Lips arguing over this, including the obligatory mention of the page quote.

* JD on ''[[Scrubs]]'' lent the Janitor a buck for the vending machine, only for him to start acting as if every random encounter is JD hounding him for a repayment. Of course, that's how he acts most of the time with no provocation whatsoever, so...

== Music ==

* "Listen Up" by The Gossip:

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* It's worth noting how many broken friendships are caused by this. In fact, there's a reason why a gigantic chunk of cases on most "judge" TV shoes have to do with loaning money. It's better to treat any money loaned to friends as a gift, although it would be nice if they paid you back.

** For the majority of these cases, the agreement was only verbal and it gets hard to prove that the friend owed the other friend money when one can easily "forget" or not remember the details of the loan correctly.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]

[[Category:Plots]]