beggars

Everybody knows that big cities are full of beggars. On a daily basis you have someone asking for money for food, for beer – the list is endless. In the evening you will see sleeping bags coming out and covers being built from cardboard. Hence, someone pulling your sleeve should not be anything out of ordinary.

On Wednesday night we finished work a tiny bit earlier than usual and hence the Daily Monoprix, which keeps its doors open until midnight was still spiting out customers.  I decided to treat myself with yoghurt and went in. as I was trying to make the difficult decision between prune and blueberry yoghurt a young, fairly decently dressed man came over to talk to me.

Apparently he was missing few coins from what he needed to buy and hence wanted to know if I had some change to spare. I said that I didn’t have any cash. Then he suggested that I buy his readymade meal for him. Well, true he only needed few coins for the meal that cost 2€53 as he had the 3cents but still I did think that he was being a bit cheeky. Hiding my smile and holding my tongue I kindly refused to buy anything for him.

When I left the shop I saw the guy on the street, close to the door, obviously waiting for the next innocent looking girl to go in.

I had earlier that day seen an amazing pair of shoes. In fact I was almost late for my French class because I stopped in front of the shop window to stare at them. They were like make for me and would in fact look stunning with the outfit I have for my father’s birthday party. The unfortunate bit was that they cost 253€.

After the nightly incident I wondered if I should try the same tactic – go into the shop, wait until someone else comes in and kindly ask if they had few Euros to spare because I didn’t have quite enough cash for the pair of shoes I had my eyes on. In fact I was just missing the 250 and would happily accept a payment with amex as well.