My wife and I recently closed a business. An acquaintance, the parents of our daughter's friend, were very sad to see our store closed and gave us $300 in cash. We've seen them at various school events over the years and they've been occasional customers of ours, but we are not particularly close.

What should we do? We feel kind of funny accepting such 'charity,' (we don't need the money), but we don't want to hurt their feelings either.

What's the etiquette on this?

Thanks.

It was a gift, not charity. I say you accept it graciously and buy them a very nice girft with it, along with a thank you card.

I absolutely agree with CM's approach.

Use the money for something thoughtful... even something like a great holiday arrangement... or take them out to a big dinner... even if you aren't close, sometimes its nice to step out of the comfort zone.

Who knows why they did what they did. It was thoughtful of them, even if the reasons were not valid. Id try to put the best possible spin on it, in my mind, and then find some way to return the gift.

I'm not an expert in etiquitte, by the way... since I'm a irish/serb man who tends to hit first and apologizes later. Just my 2 cents worth.

Man... must be getting old. Just realized the keyboard doesn't have the "cents" sign on it anymore. Geeez.

Why thank you... agreed. You are not old... try hitting ALT and then 00A2... see what happens..

Well... I know I can get the sign on the screen, but its no longer on the physical key. Not that I need to use it often, its just one of those "when did they put a light at that intersection? four months ago?!" moments.

Gotcha!!