Professinal Beggars: Can You Recognize Them?

Or your heart is too soft to see...

Love and compassion has no backbone without truth and justice*

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In the apartment building, where my mother grew up, there was a professional beggar. He used to go out to public places, twisted his limbs into unimaginable contortions, and made ten times more money than people who actually worked for a living.

My mother also encountered a “poor blind lady” beggar, when she was at college, and she gave her her weekend pocket money, only to find that, only a few minutes later, the “blind lady” was hiding around the corner, because a policeman came but. Yes, the poor blind lady was peeping.

My mother’s story is making me think it over again. How can I possibly tell a professional beggar from someone who needs help?

Easy-peasy: those, who need help, hardly ever ask for it, and when they do, they go to friends and family. If they go to you, they are pros.

I have actually supported the blind, but they were also working; they made baskets and sold them. I simply overpaid them.

You must have encountered beggars at traffic lights. Most of the time, they owe money and they are forced to do the job until they pay up. Yes, their stories on their cardboard signs are heart-breaking. Also, in some countries, there is a “beggar mafia,” and they keep slaves or you have to pay them in their racketing scheme, if you want to become a pro.

Also, if you add up the beggars’ expenses compared with their claims and their demands, you might experience an epiphany.

Of course, you can always cherish the illusion that you have a good heart and stay gullible as my mother was.

Of course, the most professional ones are not small-time crooks; they are called “charities.” The following article also contains some comic relief:

https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/how-about-charities

Those are a whole lot worse, and many of them are only self-sufficient or used for money laundering.

And it gets worse:

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* It was one of the new substackers, Libor (https://substack.com/profile/113468668-libor-soural), whose recent activity gave me the idea to write the following. He has profusely participated in my discussion sessions as a one-armed person from Nicaragua without a job, although he seems to be able to spend plenty of time here and make plans for those who are willing to send him money that far supersede any reasonable consideration on his payment site, which definitely looks professional and his language skills are somehow a whole lot better than someone’s who is living in the jungle and unable to find work. The payment site shadows him, so he might even live on the Antarctica. :) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lsouralF)

Please, notice that this is not a judgment over him; I am simply reflecting on the phenomenon.