There is one lesson to learn here, never spend money that you do not have yet. You friend probably learned his lesson on your given incident.
Yes..., it really teaches alot of lesson. But yet most people are not still ready to learn from their past mistakes. They still go ahead living their lifestyles in friends, family and neighborhood promises.
They don't learn because they are able to solve it and deliver the solution to the problem. I think instead of learning from their mistake, they became comfortable and confident that they can fix it so for them it does not matter to repeat such an incident. These people will only learn if they are deeply in debt and unable to escape from it. Regret always happen in the end.
That was exactly what we did. We are all friends so a shame on anyone of us is a shame on all.
It is not bad to help a friend especially when it is in an actual incident. We should really give some money as a share for paying the bill, after all, we had enjoyed the celebration and the food.
That's should be part of the quality of a good friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Even if we don't enjoy the celebration together, that won't stop us friend being of assistance.