Exercise GENEROSITY with WISDOM

Once I was having lunch with a friend, a man in his fifties, sloppily-dressed but fit-looking, suddenly appeared beside our table and asked crudely in Hokkien dialect, "Can give me some money to buy food?"

My friend stared at him and asked him politely in Hokkien dialect, "Uncle, what do you want to eat? I buy for you now." He kept silent and my friend suggested to get him the "fish porridge". He hesitated for a moment and decided to find himself a seat a few tables away from ours.

This man probably had never met with such a response to his request, he looked stunned and not too happy with my friend's suggestion, but he couldn't reject the offer because he wanted food. Do you know what he was up to?

In fact, he is just one of those guys going around begging for money to buy cigarettes. Once they have begged and collected enough money, they would rush to the stall to buy cigarettes and start puffing away in a remote corner, feeling so accomplished. These are truly the "professional" beggars meeting their daily smoking quota with a standard begging script.

Towards the charity-smart beggars especially this group who beg to buy cigarettes, it is better to be wise when exercising our generosity and kindness.