Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей

There is a Russian saying, above: Nye imey sto rubley, a imey sto druzey (I am transliterating to demonstrate that it rhymes). It means: “Don’t have one hundred rubles; have one hundred friends.” (It made more sense back in the days when one hundred rubles was relatively a lot of money.)

My car’s thermostat went bust, as a result of which my antifreeze was not cycling back into the radiator. The pressure built up, and the opposite pipe burst open, leaking out all the antifreeze. As a result, my engine obviously started overheating. Only when the smoke filled the car, I realized that something was wrong (I know approximately as much about mechanics as a regular mechanic knows about Neuroscience; the fact that the temperature needle went all the way to the right and that heating stopped working meant nothing to me).

My neighbor (the son of my landlady) replaced the pipe and the thermostat (and drove me to the AutoZone to buy all the parts and the antifreeze). The whole affair cost me about $36. My local mechanic would probably tell me that I need to replace the whole radiator.

When asked “What do I owe you?”, my neighbor answered: “Nothing. I like fooling with this kind of stuff.” (I am still going to buy him a case of beer, though.)

Hence the above Russian saying.

(Need I mention that he is from Russia? Need I mention that he is Jewish?)