I broke a rule of mine tonight – giving money to someone begging on the street. I’ve heard too many stories about people doing this, and then (too late) they realized the person had been scamming them. A friend told me she was approached in a hospital parking lot by a woman who told my friend that she’d just had a miscarriage and been released from the hospital and had no way to get home. My friend was sort of taken aback but gave her $20 for a cab. Then as my friend found her car and was getting in, she saw the same woman driving away in a nice car, and the scammer had the nerve to wave and smile at my friend!
Tonight I was in Target looking for after holiday bargains for a Christmas charity I shop for all year long. I really hit a great sale, and found a little over 100 items for 30 cents each. On my way out, I saw a young Hispanic looking woman with two children outside the store holding up a sign that read, “No work permits – need money for gas, food, hotel”. I was surprised at the whole situation (you rarely see a woman begging in our town – it’s mostly men standing with a sign near an intersection) and I walked on past while another man stopped and gave the lady some money. Something about the young woman got to me. I didn’t know what to think of her. I started thinking of how I’d just spent around $30 on items for children who I will never see and here I was turning my back on two little children and their mother right in front of me. I had no way of knowing if she was really in need of money or not, but I told myself “If there’s a $5 bill in my wallet, then I’ll give it to her.” There was, and I don’t often have much change on me. I drove back past her, leaned out the window and gave her the money. She thanked me and said, “God bless you.”
I know very well she might have just been scamming people. Or she might really have needed the money. In either case, I decided to give her something. The cash didn’t make or break me, and it might have helped her. I hope so.
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