Audience Participation - An Ethical Issue

I know there aren't any readers out there, but still I want to depress myself, so here is a chance for all of you (or, none of you) to participate.

Yesterday, a complete and utter stranger, asked to borrow my cellphone. Now, admittedly, I struggle with selfishness, a tendency to be overly private and pettiness when it comes to certain items, but I just didn't want to loan out my phone to this person who I didn't know.

Last year, I spent about a month in New York, staying just off of Times Square, and I was often asked for my cellphone by strangers. But, I refused to loan it out, in part, because the requestor never furnished a rationale as to why they needed mine. In fact, in a humorous incident, I received a verbal harangue from one such jilted borrower, who said, in a heavy asian accent, "Ah! Fine! F*ck you, motherf*cker-r-r!"

Yesterday, my battery was dead, so it ended a non-issue, but I noticed that this person, who only claimed to have lost his own viaduct to the world, found refusal from 10 or more people, before he finally obtaining the desperately sought communicator. Also, noticed, a tone of irritated response, in both others and myself, including the person who finally relented to the request. True, it could have been an emergency, but that was not stated in the request. And, a cultural barrier presented itself to further complicate the matter: english is an unlikely first language of the requestor.

So, my question(s)...would you loan out your cellphone to a stranger? How do you feel about being asked? Do you think it's rude? Or should we take mercy on the misfortunes of the cellphone-less creatures seeking our compassion? Do you have any humorous stories about being asked for your phone?

Have a good weekend, everyone! (or no one as the case may be.)