Money Moral Dilemma: Should I give my brother a better power tool after I broke his?

ambioni

This isn't about power tools, it's about family and how close (or distant) you want to be with your brother. You basically owe your brother a new power tool, it's not his fault the original broke and it could be because you misused it somehow. The best outcome here would have been to give him back the tool and for him to buy you a gift as a "thank you". As I said, if you both make an issue of this it will damage your relationship, so what's more important, spending a few quid on your bro (who lent you his power tool as a favour) and staying friends, or making a big deal of it and losing each other by keeping the tool and making him wait for a replacement?

MalMonroe

YES.

Because -

1. You broke his.

2. He might want to use it and will be inconvenienced by lack of one. 

3. You could/should have bought yourself one in the first instance but instead borrowed his and broke it.

4. Now he hasn't got one. Because of your actions. 

5.. It's your brother!

bikaga

MalMonroe said:

YES.

Because -

1. You broke his.

2. He might want to use it and will be inconvenienced by lack of one. 

3. You could/should have bought yourself one in the first instance but instead borrowed his and broke it.

4. Now he hasn't got one. Because of your actions. 

5.. It's your brother!

this. He gave you the tool and you broke it, if you weren't going to replace it with something as good or better if you broke it then why did you borrow it? It's not your bro's fault if the same model isn't available now. He bought it when he needed it AND gave it to you for free to use.

Ed264

With hindsight, it would have been better if you had bought your own tool and not have to borrow one. You've admitted the new tool is better, therefore your brother would probably agree. Keep the peace by buying him the more expensive tool, or give him yours.

tony_c_4

Give him the better tool.
You can always borrow it again if you need to.
Be happy that you did the right thing

neil.yates

Just have it fixed. Simples

KatzEliz

Give him the new tool.

OceanSound

@op: Let your brother borrow new tool until his model is available (or you find it in another shop), then once available (or you find in another shop), buy that one to give to your brother or better still make a note of the price then give brother the option of keeping new tool and paying the difference or you buying him the identical model that broke (you didn't intentionally break it I assume. LoL - still it broke while in your care so you are responsible)

sparrer

It's good of you to offer to find the same model to replace the one you broke. Your brother should be grateful he has such a generous sibling, not everyone has! Re his asking for the more expensive drill as 'compensation' he should take into account he's getting a brand new drill. Surely that's compensation enough?

dangermike

Your brother did you a favour by lending you the tool. He deserves to have a tool of equivalent or better value in his hands at the end of it. Neither of your two solutions gives him this (waiting for the model to be available or giving him its original cash value) so you're being unreasonable. 

Your brother doesn't have the right to demand the model you bought but on the other hand you didn't need to tell him that you bought a better model and want to keep it. And you probably wouldn't have told him that if he wasn't your brother.

Cut out the brotherly willy waving and sort this out by ensuring he has a replacement power tool of equal or greater value in his hands immediately. (I'd hang on to your new tool though because one thing's for sure: he'll never lend you a tool again.)

To summarize - there are four tools in this story and two of them are related to each other.