A Moral Regret

I was in town today, sat in market place drinking coffee outside Starbucks, coat buttoned up against the cold whilst talking to a friend. We noticed a man hovering around near us and when we paused in conversation he came forward and politely asked if he could ask us both a question? We both nodded and smiled and the man told us he was a Dutch guy who was over here with his girlfriend but had run into a problems. He went on to add he'd stayed at York and used his bank card with no problems whilst in a hotel, however he'd since been unable to find an ATM machine that would dispense money to him. He went on to enquire if we knew of any banks that would help him?

We pondered for a moment and then pointed out the major banks in our small town, the HSBC bank being the most well known internationally. He said he'd tried that one and they were unable to help. At that moment his girlfriend returned, they spoke quickly in Dutch and then thanked us for our help, adding he'd called home for assistance. His phone then rang and they wandered off.

Sitting musing the situation my friend and I pondered things. I added maybe if they were struggling I could have got them a coffee each, after all it was a cold day and a couple of coffees don't cost much. As we mused more questions arose, such as why didn't they carry cash or other cards? After all if you are going abroad there's many ways to carry cash in different forms. I'm not saying these guys didn't seem genuine, in fact they had probably just ran into bad luck and not prepared for their journey that well. I love Dutch people, they spoke in Dutch, I have a Dutch friend, in fact there seemed little to doubt.

A few minutes later they passed by us again at a distance and waved and smiled before vanishing from view, maybe the phone call he received was good news? My overriding thought was I wished I'd asked them to join us for a coffee and regretted not doing so. Was it right to be wary and cautious, I believe so to some degree but couldn't help feeling 'What if I ever needed help when abroad?'. As it happens I have, in Thailand once, and a Thai man helped me more than I could have imagined and yet today I felt at a loss after for not helping more apart from offering some advice. It's really funny how life throws us these little moral dilemmas at times and how they play on our minds after.