Cómo aceptar dinero prestado

 Father, mother, and daughter saw me to the cab that would take me back to Cambridge. “When I was your age, I didn’t have a penny for the bus, let alone a taxi,” Heather’s father said, handing me a twenty-dollar bill in a clenched fist. 
      I was caught by surprise and genuinely refused the father’s money. He insisted. Finally, I relented. Poor people refused because their pride was at stake. Rich people accepted money because it was not perceived as charity, but simply as a favor that comes with friendship. A poor person would make a point of repaying the money. The rich man would simply forget. 
      I accepted, hoping he would mistake me for the second. 

(André Aciman, "Monsieur Kalashnikov")