There is an entire literature describing “helping without hurting” – it goes well beyond the scope of dumping one’s junk on someone else, and shows how even the best-intentioned gifts can go wrong. Fundamentally, though, the basic problem we often face is that people want to feel like they have done something good without taking the time to ask whether that good thing is as blessed to receive as it is to give. And it is easiest to give away the stuff you weren’t going to use anyway.

One day, our hospital staff opened up a container and found that a hospital in America had donated boxes and boxes of … ball bearings for artificial joints.