Question

why does the author brood over a lost cause? how?

Answer 1

The author had given a dollar to his friend, Todd twelve months ago, when he needed change to pay for the taxi. When Todd returned from his trip the author tried to remind him of the loan in many ways. But one day when Todd said that he had almost forgotten about his trip to Bermuda, the author felt that his dollar was lost forever.

He went home and wrote Todd's name in the list of borrowers who had forgotten to repay their one dollar loans. In an introspective mood he thought that he might have taken similar loans from people and not returned them. He was so disturbed about this malaise of loan defaults that he thought of starting a "Back to Honesty" campaign. But he did not want Todd to know of the torment the non-payment had caused him.