Today, a knight was in the clockworks asking someone to loan him 5k crowns. Knight elite rank I believe.
I asked "are you planning to give it back?"
he said "yes."
I was 100% sure he was fibbing, but I wanted to humor myself so I gave him 5k.
Not more than an hour later, I got a mail from him with -6k- in it, and a neat message saying "thanks, here's your 5k back with interest."
I couldn't believe it.
I was so pleased that I sent him back 1k, and an eye of fury as a gift.
Faith in knight-manity restored.
Don't worry, not everybody you meet in The clockworks is a stingy cheating cheapskate knight. There are the good proper ones like the person that you mentioned. However, I tend to solo a lot, so I can't say for sure that the majority of knights are like this.