I try not to be suspicious; sadly it's sometimes justified. After seeing the same young woman for 3 days outside Penn Station with a sign saying she needed $17 to get a ticket home to see her Mom, I stopped and offered to take her inside and buy the ticket for her. She looked embarrassed and started muttering something about the money. I walked away. She wasn't there the next day.

My father taught me never to give to beggars as he believed they drove Caddys...

I never know what they will do with the money or how they will use it. I just know that when I do it I feel good and so that’s all that matters in the end.

In Europe there are professional beggars wearing shabby clothing and carrying babies. There is also another scam on the road to Atlantic City. A car is on the side of the road with the hood open and a woman walking with a baby in her arms. When you stop to help them a man gets out of the car with a gun and robs you.

Couldn’t agree more.

Not a big fan of the Catholic Church, but Francis got this absolutely correct: “Of the several questions the pope was asked, one focused on whether he thought giving money to people begging on the street was the right thing to do.
One thing people may tell themselves to feel better about not giving anything, the pope said, is "I give money and then he spends it on drinking a glass of wine."
But, the pope said, if "a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that's OK. Instead, ask yourself what do you do on the sly? What 'happiness' do you seek in secret?"
Or, another way to look at it, the pope said, is recognize how "you are luckier, with a house, a wife, children" and then ask why should the responsibility to help be pushed onto someone else.
The way one reaches out to the person asking for help is important, he said, and must be done "by looking them in the eyes and touching their hands."

I don't always give. Though I always say a blessing because who in his/her right mind would choose to be so compromised or debased? When I do give, it is out of empathy, for "There but for the grace of God, go I." Like Sonia, I feel good. Like Norm, I now ignore the baby decoy. Follow your heart and your street sense. Kelly

If anything I’d get Chief a coffee or sandwich.
But really i ignore. In some places they are threatening (not to me)

My Rabbi had a very long discussion about this. Whether I give something at a specific time is not ever based on what I think the person is going to do with the money. So interesting to read the responses to this particular blog, bearing in mind the mantra of Gotham.