When I was a kid, I didn’t understand that a lot of “homeless” people and panhandlers in general weren’t doing it because they were starving.
There were a lot of them, and still are today, conmen and people just looking for money for drugs and booze.
I remember about ten years ago my wife and I were walking through a downtown area of a city we were visiting and there was this homeless guy outside the diner we were eating at.
She felt bad for the guy. So she ordered him a big giant breakfast, certainly bigger than anything I had ever ordered in my life.
We took it out to the man who promptly threw it at us. He was clearly asking for money for drugs or alcohol.
It’s why you have to be really careful about who you give money to, or who you donate to.
That being said, there are some legit folks out there who are just going through a hard time. I have an uncle for example who ran a small business where he would need help doing odd jobs around his shop every now and then.
He would from time to time offer to help folks that needed help by giving them a place to sleep in the back, and would pay them for an honest day’s work sweeping up and things like that.
It really helped some people when they needed it, and there were some people that just wanted to be given everything.
Take for example the case of a man named Bray. Bray is a very fortunate man, owning his own remodeling business. He saw a panhandler on the corner one day and walked up to him with an offer.
He would do the same thing that my uncle did that I mentioned a moment ago and having him do odd jobs and other yard work for his business.
The guy stared cursing him out and began kicking Bray’s car while he was still at the light.
However, Bray had a plan. You see, he’s like me. If people want help, they need to be able to work for it.
Bray showed up on the opposite corner a short time later.
He had a sign with him telling everyone about his encounter with this ungrateful bum.
I kind of sympathize with Bray here. I mean, if you are going to act like you want help you should take it in any manner possible…not just when it could score you your next fix.
