Miss Manners: My neighbor didn’t appreciate my help

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was in the military and had the right to shop in a store where the goods were slightly cheaper than in the civilian market. My salary was also less than an equivalent civilian occupation.

One day a civilian mother who lived a floor above me sent her child to ask me for a can of tuna. I got them a can of generic albacore tuna.

A few days later, she replaced it with a can of the same size from the same brand, but with lower quality tuna. The price on her jar was within a few cents of what I paid for albacore.

Her action was deliberate. Never again.

GENTLE READER: Your belief that repaying your kindness with substandard tuna was disrespectful is disconcerting to Miss Manners. Maybe there’s backstory—or direct evidence—that you haven’t mentioned.

But if instead you simply follow the new popular trend of imputing ill will to a random act, aren’t you both unkind and illogical? In this day and age, when people seem hell-bent on yelling obscenities at passing strangers, who can believe anyone would bother to be so subtly insulting?

(Please send your questions to Ms. Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email address [email protected]; or by mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)