Ryan just sent me this text message: “Do you think the people I gave money to this morning scammed me?”

Ryan went on an early 8-mile run with a group of people this morning. On his way home, he stopped for gas. While filling up, he was approached by two very distraught females saying they had run out of gas. They asked if he had any money they could use to buy some gas. Ryan gave him all the change he had from months of dumping his change into a middle compartment tray in his car. He said it was probably around $15.

Then, as he was retelling the story to me and John when he got home, he beamed. “That really made my day…helping those people.” It was completely genuine.

As someone who’s been on this planet for awhile, my first thought was to wonder why the two gals didn’t have a penny to their name. No debit card? No credit card? And then I stopped myself. Ryan had done a good thing. No need to analyze it – especially since he felt so good about it.

Then comes this text. Ryan’s been over a friend’s house working on editing a video they put together for an assignment. No doubt his friend planted the seed of doubt. And that makes me sad. Not because I’m mad at his friend. After all, the thought had crossed my mind, as well. No, I’m sad because Ryan is learning a little more about the world and it’s the not-so-good part.

Yes, we want our kids to be prepared for the time they don’t have us to help guide them. And part of that means they need to learn that there will be people who will try to take advantage of them. They need to be on the lookout for them although it’s not always easy to figure out the good from the bad. I guess how I’d like for Ryan to live his life is that if there’s ever a doubt, err on the side of helping people. One way he could have done that in this situation was to offer to pay for their gas instead of handing over cash.

But he’s learning. Although I have a feeling that next time, he won’t be as quick to share all the change he’s been saving. He’s figuring out the world, and, although necessary, I’m sad that a little part of his innocence was take away this morning.