Dannille Vanderpool was in Napa County Superior Court Thursday because she had admitted to breaking the law.

While Vanderpool’s actions violated a section of the California Criminal Code, what Vanderpool did was really more of a violation of people’s trust and faith in others. It will take time for some people to recover that faith, no matter how much or little time Vanderpool spends behind bars.

Vanderpool was a Napa police dispatcher who some years ago began telling others — falsely — that she had cancer.

She shaved her head to give the appearance of undergoing intensive treatment.

She accepted the support of friends who helped improve her home and assisted with family chores.

She accepted money donated to defray her medical expenses from the Napa Firefighters Association, the Napa Police Officers Association, the Napa Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the Calistoga Police Officers Association and similar groups from Santa Rosa, Concord and elsewhere.

According to one of the charges dismissed in the plea agreement, Vanderpool falsified medical documents to conceal her fraud.

Her attorney says Vanderpool suffers from severe psychological disorders that led to her wrongful conduct, and that strikes us as likely given the bizarre nature of the crime.

On Thursday, Vanderpool was sentenced to roughly six months in jail for grand theft and was ordered to repay the money to her victims.

Yet there are limits to what Vanderpool can repay, and what we all must write off as a loss here.

How do you repay people who gave in time, comfort, sympathy or the effort to get others to offer a hand to a stranger?

All around us, there are Napans who could use a little help as they overcome their various hardships.

We all must be vigilant that the money and time we give to others (and in the case of the Register, which profiled Vanderpool before her story unraveled, space on the page) goes to those who need it and deserve it.

At the same time, it is our sincere hope that that no hearts are so hardened by the Vanderpool case as to turn away from others in their time of need.