I’m at Starbucks working on my laptop and a guy comes over to me. He points to the table where he’s sitting and his expensive-looking Sony Vaio.

“Excuse me, but could you watch my stuff for a moment? I’m just going over to the counter to order something.”

I hate when people do that. How aggressive does he expect me to be if somebody wants his things? I let him know exactly what he could expect from me.

“Sure, I’ll watch it but if somebody grabs it and runs off, I’m not going to chase him down. I will however let you know.”

When he came back with his stuff, he smiled and said, “My stuff’s still there!”

I recall a case years ago where a person asked somebody else to watch their things. The stuff was stolen and the person watching the things was sued. Is it no wonder we have to protect ourselves even when we’re doing somebody a favor?