A significant feature of trust is its logical complexity. It is a disposition of character and a valuable public good, a policy available in competitive circumstances and a condition of human exchange. Credulity and deceit are predictable hazards that derive from character. Trust may be misplaced or abused. Personal disposition is not, however, the only component in a relationship of trust. What is entrusted must be of value to the truster. Trust is a hazardous undertaking precisely because what is entrusted may be exposed to injury, harm, or loss. Private information may be given in confidence to an unreliable acquaintance. A family heirloom may be entrusted to the charge of a careless friend, or, as in Euripides' Hecuba, a beloved child may be entrusted to the safekeeping of a treacherous king for the duration of a war. Human attachments may be protected by trust or act as a spur to its betrayal. Trust reveals that what is entrusted to another matters significantly to the truster. The consequent risks of dependence and the fear that others may prove untrustworthy prompt reflection on how trust may be secured.