When I was in my second year at university in Ho Chi Minh City, I borrowed my older cousin Linh's laptop for a week, and I ended up cracking the screen. Even now I feel a bit embarrassed telling this story.
Linh is five years older than me and works as an architect, so her laptop was quite powerful, and she used it for drawing software. My own laptop had broken down just before my final project was due, and I needed something that could run a heavy design program. She lent it to me on the condition that I'd be very careful, because she needed it back for work on Monday.
On the Saturday night I was working in my shared room in the student dormitory. I'd left the laptop open on my bed while I went to get some noodles. My roommate came in, didn't see it, and threw her heavy backpack onto my bed. It landed right on the screen, and when I came back there was a crack running across one corner.
I felt absolutely sick. My first thought was to try to hide it, but I knew that would be worse. So I called Linh straight away and told her exactly what had happened. She was quiet for a moment and then said she was glad I'd been honest. The next morning I took it to a repair shop, and replacing the screen cost about a month of my part-time wages. My roommate offered to pay half, which was kind of her. Since then I've always used a hard case for any laptop, and I'm much more careful about borrowing things I can't afford to replace.