I'm either the world's nicest guy or the world's biggest sucker...

So we had a couple contractors over the summer, when we were in the process of migrating our back-end systems from Novell Netware to Microsoft Active Directory - a process that involved touching every computer on campus in order to remove the netware client, add the machine to the domain, and migrate profiles.

A few of those contractors came back to help us with start-of-school stuff. One of them had the misfortune of having his car towed a few days ago for being parked in a "no parking 4-6" zone. He also had some kind of problem getting his paycheck from the company we hired the contractors from.

He had asked me if I could help him out, and I was reluctant to. I barely know him. But at the same time, I can't imagine being in that situation - no car, no money - and I'd want someone to help me out. And I'd feel pretty bad being able to do something and not.

So I ended up hitting the ATM, then giving him a ride to the Baltimore City Impound Lot (which although is listed as being at 411 Fallsway, is actually (according to both signs and my Tom-Tom) in the 500 block, which took me about 20 minutes of driving and a conversation with a Baltimore City trash truck driver to figure out) and loaning him the $277 bucks he needed to get his car out and buy gas to get home.

He's supposed to get paid on Monday, and give me the money then. He even offered to let me hold his laptop as collateral, which I declined.

I'm hoping I get my money back. My faith in humanity, my belief in karma, rests on this. I figure I'll be nice until it backfires on me. If I get burned, I'll be disappointed - there are a number of things I'd like to spend $277 on, and I usually tend to be pretty frugal with my money - but I'll live. But I certainly will be less likely to do nice things for people, especially ones that involve me putting time or money on the line.