Why are people so secretive about their private lenders?

[Arteshia Darby]

There's an old saying that goes something like "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle".  Why is that so hard for people to grasp?  Being a real estate newbie I've talked to plenty of people that I personally know in the business and no one seems to want to give me a lead on a private lender.  They talk about how they use OPM, however, they suggest I look into mortgages or hard money.  It feels like they'd rather me get the short end of a deal by paying extra points, fees and interest to acquire a property instead of maybe introducing or referring me to a lender that has helped them achieve their real estate goals time and time again.  At the end of the day I'm going to keep looking until I find great private lender and maybe I may have to use hard money at first, but I just want to know why people are so tight on their lenders.  Are they afraid that their lender will run out of resources? Do they not want to continue to put money in their lenders pockets to increase their lending power? Inquiring minds wanna know...