The other day I was leaving Franklin Mills Mall and decided to stop at Wendy's for lunch. As I'm headed towards the door I hear a voice from behind me. "Excuse me, can you buy me something to eat?" I turn around and the man asking me to buy him something...is sitting on a bicycle.
My first thought was: if you have a bike but don't have money for food, might I suggest you sell the bike and get some cash? Now that I think of it, though, he should keep the bike. That way he can go from restaurant to restaurant and get some variety in his diet -- at least as long as people buy him food in more than one location.
It reminded me of the panhandler I encountered back in June on the Market-Frankford line (for you non-locals, we call it "The El") on my way to a ballgame. He was walking car-to-car asking for change. When he got to me I told him "no, sorry" and turned away. He stood there waiting, then mumbled something, and as I continued sitting there him he called me ignorant. I said, "What? I told you I don't have any change. Sorry." "No you're not." Then he said something else like "I could just stand here" as he kept standing in the aisle by me. I told him "I could call the cops" and he said if he had a phone he would hand it to me to call them. What finally got him to leave me alone was my reply: "If you had a phone you wouldn't need to ask for change, would you?"
No comments:
Post a Comment