The One-Sided Rope

Recently, my current D&D character has found a magical rope. This rope is incredible. It helps my character climb trees effortlessly. It knots and unknots itself on command. It can snake out and tie itself to something, and it coils itself up when it's done. It's an amazing rope, and my character is thankful for all it has done for him. The only trouble is that he has no way to repay it.

He has asked what it could want as thanks for its services, but for all its abilities, it is limited in its ability to communicate. It can only communicate through vague impressions. Still, even when asked, the rope hasn't given my character the feeling of wanting anything. The rope hasn't asked for anything in return for its service, so my character effectively has no way to repay it.

This is an awkward situation faced by many people in the real world. Some people offer service and/or charity and won't accept anything in return. Some people need service and/or charity and have very little they can offer in return. When there is one-sided service of this nature, it's only natural for one or more parties to feel a little bit awkward about it.

However, any awkward feelings here are illogical. The best thing either party can do here is to accept that there is very little, if anything, that can be done to balance out this one-sidedness. They should basically just let it be. Perhaps an attitude promoted by King Benjamin could help. He said that when a person wanted to give service (whether as thanks or for any other reason), but lacked the ability to serve (again, for whatever reason), they should accept that they lack the ability to serve in this way, but say, at least to themselves, that they would serve if they could (Mosiah 4:24).

Perhaps that's what my character ought to do. He already asked if there was any way he could thank his new rope (besides verbally thanking it, which he already does), and he found that there isn't really anything he can do for his rope, at least not at the moment. He'll keep looking for ways to thank his rope, but until he gets any good ideas, he'll just accept that there's not much he can do right now except just be grateful. Sometimes, that's all we can do.