Unfortunately, large swathes of the world – particularly the US and parts of Europe – are not friendly places for many right now.

And migrants seem to be taking the brunt of the anger that should be directed elsewhere – leading to some of the most hostile and anxiety-inducing conditions that many have faced in their lifetimes.

It’s all a ploy from above to redirect societal anger of course, protecting those at the top from scrutiny and protecting their power – and it’s hurting real people, ruining real lives.

So good people, those who know and empathise with the effects of the hostile environment, are trying to do their bit every day to make migrants feel welcome, to make their lives a little easier.

But, as the woman in this story found, this attempt at kindness can also lead to microaggressions that are the opposite of what was intended.

Read on to find out what happened here.

AITA for asking the maintenance guy to pay me back for ruining my tool?

I am a 22-year-old woman, and am subleasing an apartment.

Yesterday the maintenance guy (male, around 45 years old) came to repair our sink that was leaking from a rusted out pipe.

When he came to fix it I was home. I talked to him a little and got his number to text him a video of the hole.

I went to the living room for a second, then he left.

But all was not as expected when she inspected the work he’d done.

I went in the kitchen and noticed that my new favorite knife (a Victorinox rounded steak knife, not the worlds greatest knife but a nice quality knife) was sitting on the sink edge (where I left it).

But now it had gunk and rust on it, and the serrations were very dulled and bent a little.

He had used my knife to saw through very tough and sticky gorilla glue plumbing tape, without asking for literally any other tool in the house or going and getting his own – and legitimately ruined the knife.

I obviously get upset because he ruined something of mine and put whatever type of chemicals on it from the piping and the tape.

Let’s see how she responded to this discovery.

I send him a text saying “Hi, sorry to bother you, but did you use my knife to cut the plumbing? This is my favorite knife and now the serrations are dulled and there is rust and plumbing gunk on it… I would appreciate the funds for the replacement, since it is now ruined and gross.”

I understand that wasn’t the most professional thing, but overall I don’t think it was rude or anything. I also asked one of my roommates who has been living here for longer if the text was okay and I let her read it. She said yes.

He answered with “I’m very sorry about that. I just tried to cut that tape.”

My roommate said to just let it go and not to prod anymore, so I didn’t respond to the text and went on with my day.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

Then he came back later in the day and went to the kitchen and he asked “is this your knife?”

I said “yes, but I’m getting a new one you can use that one if you need” and then he offered the money for it.

I said that if he wanted to just $10 is fine ($14 knife) and I took the money and said thank you, moved on with it and felt that that was fair.

But later my roommates (22 and 23, both female) both told me that they were upset with me for asking and taking the money, because he probably isn’t payed well (their assumption).

Let’s see how she felt about their suggestion.

In my opinion that has to be at least a micro aggression, assuming this adult man who does maintenance for multiple buildings and units in Chicago doesn’t have $10 to reimburse for something HE decided to use that wasn’t his!

My roommates said money isn’t everything in life and I should have refused to take the money.

I also was very kind with him the rest of the day and thanked him profusely for the work and he did not seem offended or avoidant of me at all. It seemed like he understood that he shouldn’t have used someone else’s stuff (but that’s my biased opinion I guess).

Was I wrong for texting him and taking the money?

AITA?

Without understanding their circumstances, it’s really hard to understand whether this is a privileged woman being demanding of a low-income man who made an honest mistake, or whether her friends are simply generalising without knowing anything about him.

As it is, it seems like the latter is true – that her roommates are making assumptions about a stranger because of his ethnicity, and that’s not okay.

He made a mistake, and he was humble – apologised for it and paid for his error. It was a good learning moment for him – don’t use other people’s tools without permission!

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person agreed that she did the right thing.

While others thought that it was her roommates who were out of order.

And this woman, who’d experienced immigration first-hand, spoke up for the maintenance guy.

Regardless of where he’s from, he likely would not like these assumptions being made about him.

Sure the roommates think they’re being nice, but without evidence that he’s struggling, all they are doing is being patronizing towards a man that they don’t know.

In fact, the woman who asked to be recompensed for her damaged knife was the only one treating him fairly.

Good on him for being humble and paying her back.

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.