They say that good neighbors should always be willing to lend a helping hand.

But after one homeowner dealt with two separate mishaps from their neighbor that led to a wrecked lawnmower, they began to question where generosity ends and gullibility begins.

Read on for the full story!

AITA for making my neighbour pay for my new lawnmower?

My next-door neighbor Dave is a decent bloke but unbelievably cheap.

Last month, he asked if he could borrow my lawnmower, and I said sure.

But things didn’t go as planned.

He brought it back with the pull cord snapped. Said it was just old and had given out.

Cost me a tenner, but I didn’t really think much of it—these things happen sometimes.

Incredibly, the neighbor asked again to borrow it.

A couple of weeks later, he asked to borrow it again. I reminded him what happened last time, and he promised he’d be careful.

So against their better judgment they complied, but soon regretted it.

An hour later, he shows up at my door looking sheepish.

The mower’s making a god-awful grinding noise and belching smoke.

The engine is completely trashed.

He admitted he might have put the wrong fuel in it by accident.

So the homeowner decided they were done playing nice.

I went out the next day and bought the exact same model for £180.

I put the receipt in an envelope with a note saying, “This is for the replacement,” and pushed it through his letterbox.

Then his wife had the nerve to make a scene.

His wife came over later that evening, absolutely livid.

She called me a petty, transactional AH and said that’s not how neighbors are supposed to act, and that accidents happen.

Now things are tense around the neighborhood.

Dave is now actively avoiding eye contact.

My view is, he broke it, he bought it.

I lent him a tool—I didn’t agree to be the one left out of pocket when he wrecks it.

AITA?

You’d have to be a fool to rent this lawnmower to this guy for a third time!

What did Reddit think?

This neighbor may just be a lost cause at this point.

And don’t get this commenter started on the wife…

Maybe this homeowner should plan to not see any money back.

This user thinks in a perfect world, the neighbor should have just offered to replace what was broken.

There are a lot of things that go into being a good neighbor, but constantly covering other people’s mistakes isn’t one of them.

What a mess.

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