I hate to profile...

[hikobunta]

Today I popped into this little hole in the wall place for something to eat. There was a guy in front of me in line thinking about what to get. He asked how much an item was and then turned to me and said, “I’m not going to lie, I don’t have enough money, could you give me some?” I looked at him and right off the bat, he didn’t seem homeless or anything, he just seemed like a regular guy. Upon a closer look, I thought it was possible that this man could have been homeless and just hungry. I asked him how much do you needed, he said $0.75, I thought about for a second and pulled out a dollar. He took the dollar and walked right out of the place. When he got the door I yelled at him, “Are you serious?” He just responded with, “Yeah, I’m serous!” and then he left. The lady behind the counted promptly told me that I should never give money to homeless people. I got to admit, even though it was just a dollar, this encounter is the kind of shit that really makes you lose faith in people. I don’t have a big problem with panhandlers, I mean their deal is clear, they are asking for money and it is up to you if you want to give it to them. And if they catch me on a good day I will give them some change. This guy was just plain deceptive.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t give money to the homeless in general because I really can’t be sure where he or she will spend it. But if you are talking about buying a fellow human being a meal, because they are honestly hungry, once in a while, I pull a couple of bucks out. Nobody likes to be made a fool of, but this guy totally just suckered me and I’m having trouble let it go. I guess the worse would be if this incident made me never want to help strangers again, but I am having trouble picturing myself doing anything nice for the homeless…