[markem]

I'm sure that most, if not all, of us know or know about some one person who seems to freeload off other people's stashes. I think that is the type of person the OP was posting about, although it is clear that others in this thread are painting a wider brush.

I see no reason to start a thread over that one aberration of a person. Tell the person 'no' and move on with your life. Complaining about the one person just makes you miserable. Let it go and move on. Don't worry about their behavior if it isn't directed at you - you can't play mother hen to the entire world.

Let's let this thing die and move on to other topics, like who has received the most touching stick from a friend or stranger and why was it so. I doubt that most of the stories would include rare sticks, but who knows. Many here know about the time I gave a rather run of the mill stick to someone who was homeless and it reminded him of better days and took away the pain of his circumstances for a while, or so he told me. Let's focus on the good in both us and those around us, m'kay?