How do we know which friends to trust?

**Shaka_Khan** · 08-12-2013, 03:41

Many years ago, my uncle's home was burglarized by his own "friend". How his "friend" got caught is an interesting story. His daughters (who are my cousins) were in the house when it happened. My uncle and his wife were at work. The "friend" (who was masked at that time) made the daughters stay under a blanket while he was taking my uncle's stuff and hidden cash. When he was in another room, the older daughter called the police. The daughters were kids at that time so I think he didn't expect any of them to call the police. The police went and captured the burglar. My uncle went to see who it was and realized that the burglar was his own friend. He didn't tell the police, his wife nor his own daughters. I guess he was embarrassed by it. He is more open to his sisters, one of them being my mom.

Recent events on the news have made me wonder about this again. The news show photos of innocent friends smiling with a villain. In the past, I felt sorry for the quiet and antisocial people because of how the earlier villains were described as. The current villains broke that stereotype. I can understand Hannah smiling with DiMaggio. I've smiled unwillingly with a person whom I didn't trust when a "friend" wanted to take a photo of us together. It was just something I did to be polite without thinking much about it. However, one of the photos of Americans (one of them being a woman) smiling with one of the Boston terrorists caught my attention because it was so candid. It didn't seem to be forced.

Am I being paranoid? Now I don't suspect anyone around me of being a potential murderer or a kidnapper. However, I wouldn't trust a lot of them over less serious issues.

**a completely inoffensive name** · 08-12-2013, 07:44

You never know who you can trust. That's part of life. Always keep one eye open but you need to give the benefit of the doubt. It's like asking how do you know you can trust your SO with some personal information as you settle into a relationship, you don't. You just have to, or you don't.

**Fragony** · 08-12-2013, 08:30

I can absoluily trust my friends, we have known eachother forever we are very close.

**Shaka_Khan** · 08-12-2013, 09:43

Btw, it bothers me when I see a few insensitive people on the internet accuse Hannah Anderson of being an accomplice. They use photos of her smiling with DiMaggio as reasons to suspect her. They probably forgot what it's like to be a teenager. If a kid has a close relationship with his or her parents, then those parents will have a huge influence on who that child trusts. If their parents trust a person, then their kids will do the same, especially when they've known that person all their life. When looking at the mother taking her kids to DiMaggio's home on the day it happened, it's clear that the parents still trusted him. And I'm not surprised that Anderson showed no signs of trouble when the horseback riders saw them. DiMaggio was armed and dangerous. I hope she doesn't read the negative comments on the internet.

**Sigurd** · 08-12-2013, 09:45

Having worked with Americans for over 20 years, I have come to realize that the concept of "friend" is a little different for them. They call someone friend, which we north in Europe would barely name an acquaintance. A friend is basically family and should be trusted as such.

**Kadagar_AV** · 08-12-2013, 18:36

Agreed Sigurd.

I am lucky to have 3 friends, and I'd trust them with anything. Heck, I even know the ATM code for two of them...

They are all 3 closer to me than my brother.

**Vuk** · 08-12-2013, 18:51

A points system works best.
If they are from a rural are, 2 points.
If they hate the Packers, 1 point.
If they listen to country music, 2 points.
If they have a mullet, -2 points.
If they own a dog, 1 point.
If they drive a Ford, 10 points.
If they own a gun, 1 point.
etc, etc.

Then add up the points of the people you know and pick the top 3 to be your friends. (A man really doesn't need more than 3 friends)