I have a suspicion your credit is bent

From The Heinlein Maneuver from Letters of Note. People are generous in many ways, most commonly with their time and their money. Money in particular can be an ambiguous act though. While it usually is the most effective means of ameliorating a problem, it is also quite impersonal.

In the Heinlein maneuver, the author describes an intensely personal, one might say "real" act of generosity which is impressive and sets a standard towards which one can aspire.

I went into a horrible dry spell one time. It was a desperate dry spell and an awful lot depended on me getting writing again. Finally, I wrote to Bob Heinlein. I told him my troubles; that I couldn't write—perhaps it was that I had no ideas in my head that would strike a story. By return airmail—I don't know how he did it—I got back 26 story ideas. Some of them ran for a page and a half; one or two of them were a line or two. I mean, there were story ideas that some writers would give their left ear for. Some of them were merely suggestions; just little hints, things that will spark a writer like, 'Ghost of a little cat patting around eternity looking for a familiar lap to sit in.'

This mechanical, chrome-plated Heinlein has a great deal of heart. I had told him my writing troubles, but I hadn't told him of any other troubles; however, clipped to the stack of story ideas was a check for a hundred dollars with a little scribbled note, 'I have a suspicion your credit is bent.'

It is very difficult for words like 'thank you' to handle a man that can do a thing like that.