Most of philosophy is tedious pedantry, so in the spirit of a more practical approach, this is what happened to my housemate about a week ago. Her reaction is, I think, philosophically interesting.
My housemate was coming home from uni on this particular day and a chap in a wheelchair shouted for her to stop. She did stop; it appeared that the chap wanted a push up the hill (She was cycling down the hill at the time). She locked up her bike and obliged the chap. Anyway, after some conversation between them while she was pushing him, it turned out that he was also diabetic and that he had just been to the QMC (the hospital opposite Notts uni.) for treatment for something or other. In addition to this however, he said he lived in Scunthorpe and didn't have enough money for the train journey home. Consequently my housemate gave him £20, that being all she could afford, and her address so that he could send the money back to her.
She has not got the money back yet, nor do I expect she will. Interestingly my housemate has consoled herself with the following sentiment:
'It is worse to distrust people, than to be deceived by them.'
[I don't know if these are her words, or if she got them from elsewhere.]
What do people think of…
a) her reaction to the diabetic chap in the wheelchair. Presumably a significant proportion of the reason why she gave him money was the sympathy he extracted in spite of the rather odd circumstances. So whatever the rational response should be; how far is this relevant to her actual response, given that she was emotionally coerced?
b) her sentiment as a moral principle?