Sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t always feel like the right thing.

A teenager tried to help a lost elderly woman at the mall, but the moment she was led away by a man claiming to be her son, doubt crept in.

He had no idea whether he’d helped her or made a terrible mistake.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

AITA for letting him take her home?

It’s a bit of a confusing situation for me (16). I was at the mall with my girlfriend (16) when we saw this elderly woman by herself.

The woman appeared to be in a vulnerable state.

She seemed lost and was wearing a sticker label with a name and phone number. I recalled reading that sometimes caregivers give dementia patients those things, so I talked to her.

She asked me where she was.

So the teens tried to reach out to someone the woman trusted.

I called the number, and the guy said he is her son. He came to pick her up.

But then the woman acted like she never knew him at all.

She denied that he is her son, though, and protested when he led her away.

Now the teens can’t agree on if they did the right thing.

My girlfriend said I shouldn’t have just let him take her like that and that he might not be who he said he is, or he might have been abusing her, since she seemed afraid of him.

She said I should have called the police to verify or something.

I just don’t know. It was my first time dealing with this sort of situation.

AITA?

The teens walked away hoping they’d helped this woman, but they couldn’t help but wonder if they had inadvertently made things worse for her.

Redditors took to the comment section.

This user thinks the teens shouldn’t beat themselves up too much over this.

Dementia is a heck of a disease.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing is all too common with memory loss.

The fact that the man picked up right away was a good sign that should reassure these teens.

Occasionally good intentions still leave room for doubt.

Acting with compassion should never be something to second-guess.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.