Random Act of Kindness

[ttleistdci]

Everyone has their own views on the homeless, but this is something I just saw that I thought was pretty cool.

A homeless guy, and a couple bags of stuff he has, are leaned up against a store that isn't open today. I see a guy, maybe late 20s, early 30s, walk up to him. "Hey buddy, how'd ya end up homeless?" He said it in a way that either he was writing some kind of research paper on the homeless or he really cared to know what happened to this guy. I didn't hear the answer, but I walked closer pretending to be doing something else so I could hear what they were saying.
The middle aged guy hands him $10. "I know it's not much, and it's not gonna make all the difference in the world, but if you're hungry later maybe you can grab something."
Obviously appreciative, the homeless guy accepts the $10. I didn't hear what he said to this, but the middle aged guy responded, "Yeah, but it takes a much bigger man to take the money."
They wished each other well and that was that.

Not something you see every day. The homeless guy wasn't on the side of the road begging and he wasn't even really asking for money. He was just leaned up against a door at the end of a plaza, out of everyone's way.

I just thought it was pretty cool that this guy goes out of his way to try and make this homeless guy's day a little bit better.

[TStoneMBD]

when i see homeless people on the side of the street, i chuck AOL 5.0 discs at them frisby style. you know, in case they need some free internet access for their computers.

[balkii]

how many tall cans of steel reserve do you think this guy bought with those 10$?

[Eihli]

Yeah but he'd have felt pretty stupid if the guy wasn't homeless.

[WSUchica]

I think that's such a cool story, I always hesitate when I'm downtown to give beggars money. I'm not really sure why, I guess I always hear about the bad things they do with it (aka buying alcohol or relying on people's generosity rather than actually going out and getting a job) but I don't even know how often those things actually happen, and I'm sure that middle-aged man had a wonderful day after that, just knowing how he could have helped the homeless guy

[-Skeme-]

Some bum asked me for some spare change at 7-Eleven last week. I asked him what he was going to buy with it and he said food. He was eating some sick slice of pizza that someone gave him so I agreed. I gave him like $.79 and almost didn't want to cause there was a quarter in there, but whatever.

[poker-penguin]

I don't like being harassed for money (although to some extent I understand that it's necessary that homeless people are quite aggressive if they want their solicitations to be effective). Don't try and guilt trip me you ****ers.

This goes for charity collectors too, there's a very fine line they walk between doing good (getting me to give money) and doing evil (p**sing me off) in the name of good.

And the "middle aged guy" was right - it does take a big man to accept unasked for charity. Plus, it doesn't hurt to be nice, if you're giving the guy $10, don't be a dick about it, otherwise you're not doing anything good.

[balkii]

One time, this guy Cripple McShirtless came up, and said, "Spare some change for two sandwiches?" And I thought, two sandwiches? Thats kind of a lot to ask for.

[arod4276]

not if you havent eaten in a week,,,arod4276

[shadow29]

I get approached by guys a lot when I go downtown.

If I have time, I take them to McDonald's, tell them to order whatever they want, then pay the bill.

This way I'm helping people and I know they're not buying drugs.

Sometimes they give me free lessons on how to walk down the street and not get mugged. Quite enlightening, actually.