Why isn’t reciprocity enough to maintain the social world? Why must there also be a norm of beneficence that provides for something for nothing? This paper demonstrates that it does not suffice for social stability if men are concerned solely with complying with the rights of others and give them only their due. Every moral code must contain normative orientations such as “altruism,” “charity” or “hospitality” which call upon men to aid others without thought of what they have done or can do for them, solely in terms of the needs imputed to the potential recipient. According to this analysis, the gift as to be interpreted as a special kind of interconnection between beneficence and reciprocity.