When is a beggar a genuine beggar then? I was asking myself this question numerous times the other night as I went to bed.  I have not been accosted by such a person for a good eight or nine years I think…..that was until last Wednesday evening sadly.  I went to sleep replaying in my mind time and time again what had happened in our brief exchanges, wondering if I should have handled it any differently.  I found the experience with this beggar a bit upsetting if I am honest.  My question therefore is, how do you determine who is a genuine beggar from those who are not?

The day before this encounter I got into a conversation about beggars with one of my ‘tweeps’ on Twitter. She was venting her frustration about a random person in the street asking her whether she had any loose change to give them for the bus. Her frustration was about her not being sure if this person genuinely needed help, or whether they were being disingenuous and really wanted the money for something else, i.e drugs, drink etc.   There are also the so-called ‘professional beggars’ out there who just see it as an easy way to make a bit of money from kind hearted souls wanting to help those less fortunate than themselves.  I replied to this girl on Twitter that in my experience most beggars are not genuine and that she needed to ignore them.  It is a hard thing to do at first but it is the right thing to do, namely because most are not genuine I said.

This twitter conversation then made me remember all the times that I had been approached by beggars whilst living away at University. We’re talking here Liverpool in the late nineteen nineties and the town seemed to be full of them to my immense surprise.  I was nineteen and not streetwise and so it was a big shock to get random people coming up to me and asking if I could give them any spare change that I had.  I can remember once this rough young couple coming up to me in Liverpool Lime Street Train Station pushing a baby in a trolley whilst holding tins of beer as they asked me for money, I was staggered and told them where to go.  Eventually I did get more streetwise though.  I grew a thicker skin and became immune to their false begging pleas and bullshit stories.  It was a scary thing to do at first because it can be an intimidating thing to experience, i.e random rough looking strangers approaching you for money.

I can remember one time this woman came up to me outside Lime Street Station and she gave me this meandering tale about how her fiance had got stuck in Preston and could I ‘lend'(give) her some money towards her fare so she could go and meet him.  I was in a good mood at the time and nearly bought the story. Just as I was about to reach inside my wallet to give her some money she opened her mouth which showed me a set of rotten teeth, which for some reason made me recognise her. This was the same woman who always hung around the train station begging for money. I therefore knew the story was a complete fabrication so refused to give her anything.  She then got abusive towards me shouting various obscenities at me, this further confirming to me that she was not on the level.  Back then I guess young naive students were easy pray for such dishonest people like her.

Another story that I have lodged in my memory banks was when I was once waiting for a black cab at Manchester Piccadilly Train Station. I was tired and was stressed up to my eyeballs with Uni work and health stuff. This hard looking bloke approached me and before he could even open his mouth I told him that I did not have any spare change.  He went off his rocker at me, saying he was not going to ask me that. Got to be honest, I thought I was seconds away from being in a fight with this guy such was his indignation at my suggestion he was a beggar. I apologised for my mistake because that is what nice people do, but this just showed how sick and tired I had become of fake beggars pestering me. Just for the record I still reckon my initial hunch about this guy was correct though.

Last Wednesday was a really big day for me.  I had this big hospital appointment at 3pm and so was emotionally drained on my journey back home.  I got lost on my walk to the nearest tram station, that lost that I think I ended up walking about four miles(big thing when you have a sore pelvis like I do).  I was back on track(coming home wise) and just making my way out from the train station when I saw this woman in her mid to late twenties catch my eye.  Narcissistic me thought she was ‘eyeing me up’,  this was soon discovered to be wrong though when I heard her asking me for money for her fare home.  I was really shocked and surprised at this begging request because it had not happened to me in years.  Liverpool had got a lot better regarding beggars and it was just something that I never expected to personally experience again in the UK. I also had this twitter conversation that I had the day before about beggars in the forefront of my mind.  I had to be tough with this female beggar I thought, how could I not be after I had instructed my twitter friend to act in such a way.

After a hell of a day I needed this encounter with this female beggar like a hole-in-the-head.  I refused politely that I did not have any spare change because as she came closer to me, she did not look a trustworthy sort(as bad and snotty as that makes me sound).  She had teeth missing like somebody who you would see on an episode of Jeremy Kyle.  I know that must make me sound like a very condescending person but these were my initial thoughts upon getting closer to this woman.  My instincts told me that she was lying. I passed by her and thought nothing else of it really, barring my slight annoyance at her.  Annoyance that people still do that, annoyance that people still felt the need to do that kind of thing.

About ten minutes later I was standing waiting for my tram home when I saw this same ‘begging woman/girl’ again.  This time she was begging people for money who were waiting for a tram and by mistake…. I think, she asked me again. Once again I shook my head firmly at her and said I had no money.  This time though I noticed she had tears in her eyes and this sight really got to me.  As the tram departed(with me on it and going away from her) I started to wonder what if she had been genuine after all? I hate seeing people upset. However, if she had been telling the truth then surely you’d get a taxi home and tell the driver that you’ll have to nip in and get him the money once you’re there wouldn’t you…or from somebody else? How did she get there anyway and then not have a enough money to get home?  My gut instinct still told me that she was not on the level but the sight of her all emotional like that really distressed me.

Maybe it is because I am a big emotional softie, but when I finally did get home these two encounters with this beggar kept playing on my mind like I said at the start of this piece. I found the whole experience an upsetting one. Upsetting that she felt desperate enough that she had to behave that way, whatever mess she had got herself into. I felt bad for not giving her money but I just had a bad vibe about her.  If I had thought she was one hundred per cent trust worthy then I would definitely have given her some money to get a bus or train home.  I based her untrustworthiness on the way she looked, spoke AND EVEN FROM THE AWFUL STATE OF HER TEETH.  How bad does that make me feel and sound that I never lent her any money because the sight of her rotten gums gave me connotations of a bad egg? It was lunacy and bad of me to think that way, or then again was it because I am not completely sure? Fake beggars stigmatize the genuine ones out there that genuinely need an altruistic helping hand from others better off in society.

When is a beggar a genuine beggar then, I am not sure you can ever be fully sure? Nevertheless, my gut instinct is usually right so for now all I can do is carry on trusting this!