They say “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Frankly, I hate that phrase.

It’s the most cynical possible way to look at life and embodies an outlook that encourages and excuses being unkind.

Still, there are times when a kindness is repaid with an unkindness, and it’s fair to react accordingly.

Check it out.

WIBTA for kicking my new housemate out without notice?

I (35M) have known my friend Matt (34M) for 16 years.

They go way back, but there’s been a big change recently.

Matt has had a hard run at life.

He always struck me as one of those people who are rough around the edges but deep down is a genuine person.

Matt ended up homeless and with very few possessions sleeping on the couch owned by Trever (38M).

For context there are a lot of valid reasons why living with Trever would be miserable.

I offered to let Matt move in with me 2 weeks ago and at first it seemed to go well, Matt was grateful to be away from Trever and he could focus on finding a job.

Good riddance Trever!

Sounds like all’s good, right?

For context I have a home office in one of the spare rooms where I work on a small IT business and have a part time job where I run games and entertainment for bars and pubs.

Most of the customers pay cash which every fortnight I deposit the cash into my employer’s bank account.

I keep the cash in the office.

You can probably see where this is going now.

Two days ago I took the cash to the bank and noticed it was $650 short (about a weeks pay for me).

I made up the difference from my own pocket and went home to ask Matt if he knew anything about it.

Matt denied knowing anything about it and I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, I also installed a camera in the office that night without telling Matt as, in theory, he would have no reason to enter that room.

This morning I checked the footage and saw Matt enter the office and take some more.

It’s terrible to be right in a situation like this.

I am planning to wait till the end of today and if Matt doesn’t approach me to let me know he took some money and offer me a very good reason on why he didn’t ask first I think I need to kick him out immediately.

I don’t think I can trust him not to steal something more valuable if I give him notice though I might reach out to Trever first and ask him if he would take Matt back.

Let’s see what the comments say:

He really went all out, didn’t he?

Is he being “a bit silly?”

There are all kinds of issue at play here.

Many comments were very quick to just say “call the cops,” which is understandable, but seems to miss the fact that these two are old friends.

How quick would you be to potentially imprison, or otherwise wreck the future prospects of a friend, even if they had wronged you?

It’s not as simple as that when you care.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.