What is a friend?

Based on a real event: (shared by my dad from the net)
One night a man received a phone call from one of his friend. This friend is only considered as a normal friend, not especially a close one, so the man was surprised when his friend asked if he could lend him $100,000 which he would return one month later.
The man wanted to refuse, considering that he doesn't really treat this friend of his as close, so he's not too sure about loaning such a big sum of money to him. However, upon thinking that since this friend would call him to ask him for this loan, it would mean he has deep enough trust in him.
So after saying he would need a few minutes to think, he called back and agreed to the loan.
One month later, the friend really returned the $100,000 and thanked him for his goodwill. Out of curiosity, the man asked, "I don't really treat you as a close friend, why have you thought of asking me for the loan?"
The friend answered, "You are not the first person that I asked. I have called 9 other people in descending order of how close I see them as, from the one whom I thought was my closest friend until the ninth, and all of them refused. You are the tenth person that I've contacted."
The man was surprised by this answer. He then followed this friend's example and called or messaged his closest friends and asked for a loan of $100,000 (a sum he was sure that they have but will be a rather large sum of money) and will return in a month. He also called according to how close his friends are to him, and the first ten refused him again. Most of the replies include tight with money, need to save money for child's university fees, just lent to someone else.
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The obvious moral of the story is "don't put people who only know how to have fun with you, or work together to solve small problems with you, as your close friends. True friends are the one who have great trust in your responsibility, and are always willing to help."
However, it is of course sensible to argue that 1. closeness of friendship is not only dependent on whether they would lend you a large sum of money in times of need 2. some of your friends may really have their own problems at the moment.
What my dad wanted to say would probably be that it is still a measure of how close someone feels towards you, because by agreeing to lending the large sum of money to you (and assuming this large sum is considered large to the friend himself as well) when they heard that you need help financially, they trust that you are and will be responsible with this sum of money, that you really need help, and that by lending you the sum of money they are helping the best they can (otherwise you would have said otherwise).
My mom's argument is that lending money is not the only measure of friendship, and that friends should be open with what problems they have before they ask for help (in the story this friend did not clearly state why he need the money for). (we ignore other stuff such as fear of phone scams etc that makes the topic digress)
I would probably agree with my dad more, but I guess my mom's point of view is necessary in order to ensure survival in this world. Haiz, why can't the world be less complicated so that I can enjoy being a nice guy (not that I don't but thinking about my future I think being a nice guy would require 人品 in order to survive)