What is the price, please?

Maybe it was lack of sleep, maybe it's just a day to be pessimistic, I don't know...  I'm finding that most things have a price.  I do not simply mean a service or a tangible.  An orange or a loaf of bread have a price. I can afford it, or I can't. I can decide I need it, or not.  I can purchase it, or leave it on the shelf at the store.  I don't expect feelings or niceties to have a price.  I never considered them a tangible... I never considered them something that would have a due date or an expiration date.  I was wrong.  Apparently when someone performs an unsolicited act, they are writing it down on an imaginary list and in some prescribed amount of time, your payment will come due.

So how do you go about determining who to accept a "random" act of kindness from? The gurus dangle things but in my opinion never truly deliver.  You have to begin by loving yourself. By being open to cosmic forces. By practicing random acts of kindness..... I know there are more, I just can't think of them now. I do accept and believe these things though.  But what I cannot for the life of me understand is what do I do when someone with ill intent performs a kindness for ME?  I was wrong to believe that a heartfelt thank you was enough.  Do I just write it off as bad debt as I do when a client runs up a tab and then refuses to pay me? When the emotional receipt shows up, what do I do?  Do I even acknowledge that they shouldn't perform a kindness with the expectation of a return or payback-- would they even understand...

It comes as no surprise that those who run the "tab" are those that are truly not close to me.  I do not confide in them, I do not try to stay close, I do not even try anymore to keep in contact.  But somehow, I keep ending up being the bad person because I have no desire to have drama in my life.  And by drama I mean essentially the people who create the caustic environment and cannot seem to live without an oppressive haze of chaos surrounding them.  So how do you break this funk?  Do I continue to simply accept a kindness and disregard the bill that inevitably shows up?  Or do I politely say "No Thank You." and put an end to it once and for all?