Good manners go a long way, but sometimes, saying no is the most polite thing to do — especially when it comes to protecting vulnerable people.

When a girl scout came to his house without a chaperone and asked to use his bathroom, one man’s decision to turn her away left him caught between caution and guilt.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for not allowing two girl scouts in to my house because one asked if she could use the bathroom?

I am a middle-aged male and work from home.

One day he received an unexpected visitor.

Yesterday, two Girl Scouts were going door to door selling cookies, and I bought a couple of boxes.

One then asked if she could come inside and use my bathroom.

He tried to turn the request into a life lesson for the scouts.

I felt it wouldn’t have been appropriate at all and politely said no.

I felt bad and also politely told them both that asking to enter a stranger’s house wasn’t a good idea.

There was, of course, no danger from me, but I still thought it was just not okay to allow it.

AITA?

Doing the right thing may not always feel good at first, but your future self will almost always thank you.

What did Reddit think?

This user thinks it’s quite unsafe for the children to be going door to door alone in the first place.

There’s no doubt the homeowner did the right thing, both for his safety and the safety of the girls.

There are also potential scenarios the homeowner may not have even thought of.

Usually there are stringent safety guidelines in place to protect scouts.

Some people may not have thought twice about the request, but this man’s caution both protected himself and taught the girls a valuable lesson about personal safety.

Sometimes you just have to throw politeness to the wind.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.