[sounddust]

Taking money from (or loaning money to) a friend is fundamentally a bad idea, and it's quite possible - given that your friend is poor - that he's already taken money from a friend who promised that were "no strings attached," and later lost his friendship when it turned out that wasn't exactly the case. The fact is that people are generally more emotionally tied to their money than they realize, and they end up being more upset about losing it than they thought. I'm not saying you are like this, but most people are, so how would he be capable of knowing that you're different, especially if he (or someone he knew) had a negative experience with this before?

It was kind of you to offer the money, but I wouldn't make negative assumptions about your friend for not accepting it. Consider the possibility that he has good reasons for not accepting it, and that those might be the correct reasons - that he may actually be better off without it in the end.