To ask you if I should return his money

[Taylor7000]

A family member who is 19 and is terrible with money, he spends like the money is burning a hole in his pocket buying take aways and unnecessary items, fair enough he’s a teenager, we are pretty close and last month he asked me to hold onto £500 for him and return it in December so that he could buy Xmas presents etc. he told me under no circumstances was i to give it back to him before December no matter what he said.

Well of course he has been asking for it back already and I have refused. I received a cheeky text from his mother this morning (who I am not so close to) calling me a thief and if I don’t return the money she’s calling the police. The money is here all accounted for in the envelope he gave me it in, I certainly did not steal anything.

my mind is saying give it back to him as I don’t need any drama when I was just fulfilling his request but my heart knows that come December he will be stressing out that he has no money for Christmas.

I guess my question is what should I do?

I would give him back and tell him to never ask you to do anything similar ever again.

Just give it back to him, if you don't he or his mum will make up some narrative in which they can characterise you as the bad guy. I also think I would scale back the friendship.

I would give it back to him and if he's stressing about presents later, tough. He's an adult.

He's asked for it back , you reminded him of what he said bit he still wants the money so of course you should give it him back.

Yes I would give it back with a message about how hurtful you have found the whole thing. Not sure I'd be speaking to the mother for a good while.