The small courtesy offered without evaluation is easier to receive freely.

Help arrives differently depending on whether a judgment comes attached to it. An offer that first sizes you up, deciding how much you need it and what that says about you, turns accepting into an admission. The same offer made lightly, as something available rather than something earned, can simply be taken. That evaluation usually goes unspoken and is almost always felt.

When you offer something, put it as a fact rather than as a question about the other person. Saying the seat is free, or that you are going that way anyway, lets them accept without explaining themselves.