"I'd trust them with my life" is the worst way to indicate that you trust someone a lot!

If you were holding on to a cliff edge by one hand, pretty much anyone who saw would try to stop you from falling if they could. Even someone who hates you would try, however grudgingly. "With your life" is about the bare minimum level of trust.

I mean, someone stole my bike a few months ago, but I don't think that person would have murdered me. So I'd trust them with my life but not my bike.

So I probably wouldn't trust a complete stranger to mind my bike, but I'd trust a work colleague or casual acquaintance with it, so that's still a pretty low level of trust.

I'd trust heaps of people to look after a pet while I was on holiday, but a lot fewer people to remember to water my houseplants. Generally, the less valuable something is, the less you can trust someone with it.

Maybe, "I'd trust them with an extremely interesting piece of gossip". That's really narrowing the list of trustworthy people.

Or, ooh, "I'd trust them with my favourite book, which is out of print and impossible to replace" - there are MANY dear friends I wouldn't trust that much.

But imagine having a friend who you were like, "oh obviously they wouldn't call an ambulance if I was having a heart attack, we're not BEST friends". Absurd! You can trust most people with your life.

This piece was originally published in The Whippet #72 – subscribe to get the next one in your inbox!