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"For loan doth oft lose both itself and friend" (Hamlet, I think).

Yes, I know.

Also "neither borrower nor lender be." I don't know if that's in Scripture though.

But the man was working 65 hour weeks making decent money at the time (little did I know it would fall apart only a couple weeks later) and I was employed at the time too, so we wouldn't be ruined if we didn't get the money back.

I was trying to be charitable and help him and his family out. I never charged a dime of interest when I lent him money.

I had known him for many years, we were both Trad Catholics, and he had paid back many loans 1/10 as big in the past. I never thought he'd stiff me on a large sum of money.

As far as I know he's still attending Mass at the local SSPX chapel, pretending to be a Catholic in good standing.

We all know people like this, friends because of be edit to them.  When the substance hits the fan, gone!

We all know people for whom a "loan" is really a gift.  They swear they'll pay what they owe, maybe give a small amount back, then they're gone, too.

I have family members in the latter category.  If I give money, I just hand it over as a gift.  If they won't accept that, I don't give anything.  Why put a person into the position of thief and liar?

What was most annoying about this man is that he confused "wealth" with "income". We both own similar properties. But actually for years he had more income than me, and all of his was from Disability (nevermind that he was quite able-bodied, and worked for cash "under the table" all the time) whereas I had to do programming work for various gigs and clients.

As far as wealth goes, the biggest differences between us were:
A) He was horrible with money, and my wife and I were good with money management. He would pay "payday loan" fees, pawn things and then have to re-buy them again later, etc.
B) He didn't discipline his kids, and so they broke/destroyed things all the time. So he never got ahead materially.

It was funny hearing him say how evil money was, so he gets rid of it fast. Yeah, then at other times I've never seen such money grubbing and scheming.

There's a good chance he also stole a $100 gift card from our chapel. It was "lost" during Mass and at the time I didn't suspect him. But I do know him/his family have issues with both lying AND stealing. So in hindsight, it was probably him. A $100 Visa gift card is a lot of fun. But stealing from a Traditional Chapel that you attend! Might as well steal from God! (By the way, we haven't received any large donations like that in a long time. The chapel "building fund" has probably taken in about $240 total over the past 12 months.)