Oh, bullshit. The OP only needed to pay the money back because this guy was nice enough to help out. The rest of it happened purely because the friend is an idiot. The money was in an unsecured location because that’s where he said to put it. He didn’t find out it wasn’t there for a month because he couldn’t be arsed to go pick it up. Other people knew it was there because he bloody well told them about it and gave them permission to take it. This is maybe 10% the OP’s responsibility, and that’s being pretty generous to the friend. Offering to pay a 50% premium on a loan because the lender is an irresponsible moron isn’t cheap; it’s exceedingly generous.
OP, I presume you’ve asked the friend if he’s checked with the person/people who he gave permission to take the money to see if one of them took him up on his offer. If not, you should really do so.
As others have said, it depends on your friendship with this person. On the one hand, he did loan you money when you needed it. On the other hand he asked you to do a pretty stupid thing and lost his money.
Decide if this fellow is worth 120 Euros.
IMHO you do not owe him anything. You put the money where he told you to and then texted him that you had done so. It then became his responsibility to pick it up.
Ethically I don’t believe you are obligated to pay him anything more. You gave the money back in the agreed upon fashion and notified him that it was there. Personally I think he is an idiot for specifying such an insecure location, and perhaps if I was in your shoes I would have been more forceful about encouraging a safer arrangement, but at the end of the day it is his decision.
That said, if this was a simple case of money being lost or stolen from an insecure location I may have been inclined to offer to pay the 60 euros just as a cost of maintaining good relations: I wouldn’t be obligated to do so but it would make me feel better knowing that there isn’t a link between helping me out and losing 60 euros still floating around out there.
Two facts make me less inclined to do that: the fact that he specifically stated that you were responsible despite following his instructions and that he told other people they could help themselves to the money. The first is just obnoxious because you aren’t really obligated: it is the sort of thing where even if I would be originally inclined to offer to pay, the fact that he first asked me to offer is so annoying that I change my mind! The second is just ridiculously reckless, especially since he still considers you responsible for the money.
Also hopefully your friend learned a lesson about being so careless with his money. He tells you to put it in an unsecure place and then tells other people that there is free money there if they need it. You did exactly what he wanted you to do. That is the end of your obligation and responsibility. It’s his own damn fault he is out 60 Euros.
I have been in the same type of situation and at the time to me it was worth the friendship to pay the money again. As I handed him the money I told my friend that I had repaid the debt as he requested (give it to another person whom I did not know well) but since I had not actually given it to him I would pay again. A week later my friend discovered that I had in fact paid twice and he covered a bar tab which was more than the original amount to begin with.
The person to whom I did give the money the first time to ended up needing to borrow money for bail soon afterwards. Whom did he ask? My friend, of course. He told the guy he was broke and could not help him. He then turned to me and asked he he could buy me a beer for being a real friend. Funny how things work out sometimes, ya know?
I think that’s heading into what you technically do and don’t have to do, and what you probably should or shouldn’t do just to make your life easier - your life is just easier if you keep your ass firmly covered at all times. If he wanted the money back right away, I would have mailed it to him (registered mail) or sent a cheque or met him someplace convenient for him, but I wouldn’t have left the money in an insecure location because I would expect what happened to the OP to happen to me.
I don’t want you to think I’m blaming you for your friend being stupid; I think you just weren’t anticipating the problems with the situation and that your friend would blame YOU for his dumb idea.
I was told that the 3rd person was questioned about the money and he said he did not take it. Both I and the lender have no reason to doubt the 3rd person is telling the truth, however as soon as the “circle of trust” was broken by at least one other person being told about the money I think all bets are off as to who else could have found out.
If your repayment was in good faith, I’d be of the opinion that your legal and ethical duty is done. What remains now is a matter of friendship. Friends do things that goes beyond moral duty - that’s what friendship is all about.
There’s a story of two friends who are about to be robbed by someone with a gun, and the one pulls out cash and hands it to the second and says that it is a repayment for a debt. Arguably, that’s not as ethical, though I don’t know whether or not a court would hold the debt satisfied by a payment that the debtor knows the creditor will lose.
How well do you know this fellow? Because it sounds to me like he is trying to scam you, badly.
If what you have related to us is true and without omission, then your ‘friend’ is a scumbag of the first order. Who in the hell asks for monies to be left in an unsecured postbox, AND tells others they are welcome to help themselves to the proceeds in his absence and then goes on to claim that you owe him because the money was nicked, if it was at all???
Depending on your friendship, I’d be sitting the Bozo down for a deep and meaningful about how you had attempted to repay the debt, his tardiness and slackness, and how it now means you’re up for another friggin’ 60 Euros when as a student, you can ill afford it.
And how it is actually his fault it happened in the first place, so therefore you have no responsibility or culpability to reimburse him.
If he is a friend, he’ll see the error of his ways. If he’s not, he won’t, and you are well entitled (and I suggest obligated) to tell him to piss off.
YMMV etc, but if a ‘friend’ did that to me, I’d laugh in their face.
