Do you give to homeless beggars on the street or do you think they're trying to scam you?

Maybe be that nice old man just needed the gas for something in his meth lab.

I've been on the street at times in my life. Trust me most beggars are really actually poor an homeless. I never panhandled, myself. If someone offered me something I'd take it, but I didn't ask anyone for anything. I know what it was like to go without food for as much as 4 days and nights at a time, though. Its not pleasant. Its amazing what kind of resolve you can find you can have too. You get sop tired of that hunger you feel like you could knock over an old lady, just to get a burnt hot dog, but you won't. After that 4 days of going without food, you might just manage to get to a place that serves food at lunch time, and as you get there they are just locking the doors. The person who actually winds up giving you something to eat, is another homeless person that knows what its like, and all he has in the entire world is a single piece of fruit. To tell the truth, for whatever amount of homeless people you think there are in appearance in an area, there are likely 10 times more or so. Many of them are invisible. What I mean by that is, they don't look homeless. They find a way to clean up and take care of themselves You could sit next to them and talk for hours, and not know they were homeless. Another homeless person sees the invisible people. Most other people have no idea they even exist.Most of them are certainly not scamming people. I met people with Masters degrees on the street. People get to thinking they are all drug addicts and the like, too. Don't get me wrong, a 40 or 50% are, but the other portion are very much just people like you, that bad things happened too.

10 nights in a row, guest ministers at the local shelter would come to speak. You have to go to the service to be allowed to sleep there. However, these guest speakers don't check with one another what the other teaches on. They all speak on the same subject, "The prodigal son". Me, I didn't wind up homeless because I was a "prodigal son". I wound up homeless because I was a pizza man, and someone rear ended a totaled my car, and not even the $2500 I had save n my sock drawer was going to stop it from happening

On literally the tenth night of hearing a sermon on the prodigal son, and people basically drilling these human beings with the thought they deserved to be in this condition. The minister asked the crowd, "Why did God make us?" I raised my hand, and when called on I answered. I stood up so everyone could see me in a room of about a little less or a hundred people , looked out panning the room eye to eye, and said "Well, I think of it this way. If you could have what ever you wanted, do, anything, wouldn't you want someone to share it all with?" The minister choked as I looked up every eye in the room fastened to these word. Not a one did not understand them, and that the exist because God would Love them. A ten nights of basically being told the deserve their negative fates I could almost hope they would sleep through, and they could even if they didn't. Even one statement of valuing them, to hear of the Love and value of God for them, not one ear among them did not hear the truth of it. No matter why or not they were homeless. I sat down and watched the minister stutter over his words for a while, trying to find his way back to his sermon about the wayward and distracted sinners He would have never even expected such an answer from out of that crowd.

Amazing how there are 3 different stories in the context of that same chapter as the prodigal son. All 3 are about a forgiving heavenly Father, not even the one with a prodigal son in it is actually about a prodigal son. It the story of "The forgiving Father", not a story about the wayward son.

Never have I been the more honored in this life, than to have had my days of hunger among the poor, for that they are indeed the most humble people on all the Earth. 9 months latter when I got my own tax return check sent to my sisters house, I was off the street.

However, if you ever peach to homeless people about "the prodigal son", don't think you are getting a good response just because you are not getting tomatoes thrown at you. Its only because if they had any tomatoes to throw, they would be eating them

Everyone is going to need someone at points in life. Even Jesus Christ had another man help him carry his cross We are just not creatures even meant to go the challenges of this life alone. We were meant to care for one another. Love, is no scam. Its the means of even the survival, of us all.

Depends, some of them do it just for money and maybe because they want people to feel sorry for them like a Histrionic person, Alot of the time they are mentally Ill or unemployed, a good idea is for homeless people to go to places with a low unemployment rate like don't go to Los Angeles or New York or San Diego go to least expensive places but how will u get that help? I'm not the expert, maybe the state can help, hopefully there not like Wahh are population is dropping!

I have given money, food and my time to lots of homeless people and indigent people over the years. Even if a person is trying to 'scam' me, I don't care. I would rather be a generous person to someone in some way, than ignore a person who is in genuine need and I had the means to help, but didn't do anything about it. I would feel ashamed of myself if I didn't help in some way.

Hebrews 13:2

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have show hospitality to angels without knowing it."

The way I see it is, if the person is so pitiful they are begging for money, I don't mind giving it to them.

I have noticed, though, that I've never been asked for money by anyone with a cart. I find this veddy interesting.

I don't care if they buy booze with it. If I were homeless I'd be wanting some booze, too. ONe of my favorite quotes is from Hannibal where the homeless woman calls Clarice a dumbass and says you can FIND food, but you can't find booze. So true. Ain't nobody throwin away no booze, just like there ain't nobody don't like no parfait.

Sometimes they're scammers and really REALLY bad actors but I give anyway. The only time I felt a bit discouraged was when on my way into the store I gave a homeless man some money, came out five minutes later only for him to forget that I'd given him money already. We don't give to some fakers though. My sibling saw a lady pushing a wheelchair to the storefront. she sat in it and asked for money when we went inside. My sibling replied that she wasn't giving her a penny and that we'd seen her pushing the wheelchair a short time earlier. She looked ashamed but didn't say a word.

I give to people not because "Jesus" smiles down, but because I want to. Sometimes I give sometimes I don't - it all depends on the person. I'm sure I've been scammed before.

One time I was on my way somewhere and these two ladies were asking for money. I gave them both two 5 dollar bills, but I handed it to just one lady. I was in my car, so I drove away and went to the stoplight up ahead, the lady comes running back to my car and gives me a 5 dollar bill back and says that the other lady didn't deserve my money because she was just going to use it to shoot some heroin with her boyfriend. I didn't know what to think, but I took the 5 dollar bill back. The lady could have kept that 5 dollar bill for herself, she didn't have to tell me the truth.

I dont give to beggars not because I think they are scamming, but because most are drug addicts or alcoholics and Im not gonna help support their addictions! Some guy begged me in front of a Mc Donald's once, he said he needed money for food, I said "alright lets go in here and Ill buy u whatever u want". He hemmed and hawed and said well hes not that hungry and walked away. Food my a@@! He wanted to buy hootch or crack!

I do not know if Nde's are true, but I remember reading about a man or two sisters in hell. In summary,

helping a needy person is important even if you believe it is for alcohol. I BELIEVE this person did not help and ended up dying because they thought it was for alcohol.

I was in the store in a self-checkout yesterday. A man had a beer and asked for money. I thought about the Nde and still said no! I thought to myself what do I look like a "doormat?" In my mind I believe that people could tell I was kind. Shame on me.

But I usually give something.

Also, I learned from the nde stories that we are not to tell or boast about what we give. I know it is hard sometimes.

I like this question and I need to search my heart more.

I give to them, I mean, I have more than enough I can honestly spare money.

I'll have a ten dollar bill left from my birthday & see a homeless person and automatically run up & give them it. Are they scammers? Maybe. But I have plenty & I realize I'm too blessed to not be charitable.

We don't have a lot of that where I live now, but when I've lived other places, I've helped. Just because he's homeless, doesn't mean he's ignorant. Or unaware of the mess we're in. I've paid for groceries, before, and bought clothing and blankets for a woman and her kid that were living in their car. She was afraid to take the kid to the shelter, can't say I blame her, there.

that's a new one. having little to no $ i am tempted to ask people to buy me a coffee or something like that, i'm sleepy all the time w/o it ... but so far haven't caved to that one yet.

when i do have, i give. i think i have not given a homeless person $ before, only food. i've given them my food, or leftovers, i've bought them mcd's (low cost). esp. in winter, they might need it, they could be so drunk at night they forget its at all cold and need more than just a wimpy jacket to avoid getting very sick or pass out drunk and die. that little extra food could mean the difference bet. life & death for them.

doesn't sound like a scam btw, people actually use gas for driving, you can't sell it back and you can't trade it for liquor.