Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
One day the great pedagogue was obliged to borrow five hundred gulden from his friend, the burgomaster of Aarau. On his way home to Neuhof, he met a poor man, who told him that his barn had burned down and that he had been to Aarau to borrow the money to rebuild it, but had met with no success. What was the philanthropist to do! He gave the man the five hundred gulden. Of course it was necessary to return to his friend and borrow the same sum over again, and also to ask him to look the family up, but—now he came to think of it—he had never even asked the man’s name.