<< Yes, borrowing money can harm the friendship if one who borrowed fail to return the money soon. Reason is simple. The person who lent money may not always have enough courage to press his or her friend to pay back when the person keeps on saying �gI�fll return the money when I can.�h As a friend, he or she has no choice but to believe in this statement and wait day after day until the money is returned. How long he can wait depends on his personality and each situation. Some people are generous enough to wait for more than a year or longer. But very few people can forget about money completely much less let the borrower get away with it. There are always the limits to one�fs patience. I think the friendship will be damaged whenever such patience is stretched to the limit. I myself narrowly escaped the worst scenario by remembering to pay back just in time or by being reminded by the lender. I have to admit that I failed to pay back for a long time because it slipped my mind completely. I was fortunate because my friend was patient and kind enough to believe when I said it slipped my mind. When lending, very few people write out an IOU between friends. This is another reason why friendship is sometimes ruined. I think writing out an IOU should be done more often to save the precious friendship. The biggest cause of damaged friendship is borrower�fs carelessness. Also, as I have written so far, lender�fs reluctance to press for the money and the absence of IOU could be the reason why borrowing from a friend tends to damage the friendship. One must pay back as soon as possible. Delaying paying the money for no reason could lead to discord between otherwise very good friends. Also one should bforget to pay back, because the lender may think that one is deliberately delaying the paying.