Probably Not What Jesus Would Do

     One day in Buffalo, early in my first marriage when I was a lab tech at Roswell Park and my hubby was working on his PhD, we went downtown at lunch time – I can't remember why. It was a nice day, and as we were looking at the buildings and the people, a man with wild hair and even wilder eyes approached us. He was skinny and had the very appearance of someone who was about to ask us for money.

     “Excuse me, Folks, I just got off the bus from Fredonia. It dropped me here, but I need to get to the Police Station and I need bus fare to get there. Could you spare some change?”

     I don't remember if it was Fredonia he said he was from – it was someplace out of the range of the city buses, implying he had come into town on a Greyhound bus and suggesting he did not know his way around.

     So of course, I'm buying into this story – and I started to point down Main Street, “The police station is only two blocks up that way – you could walk.”

     “No, I need to take a bus if you have any change.”

     I don't remember why he said he needed to get to the police station, but it was something I also bought into – like he was looking for his sister and the police had some info.

     “We could walk with you, really, it is only a couple of blocks up this way.”

     “I really gotta have the bus fare,” and I think he was also at this point asking for money for food – the ride into Buffalo had cost him everything that he had.

     The Hubs and I were getting leerier and leerier of his story and finally we told him we did not have any change and were about to walk away when the man got a tad frantic....

     “Look!” he said, and he pulled up his shirt to reveal his bare skinny torso and a flat shaped empty liquor bottle sticking out of his waistband!

     “I'm an alcoholic, and all I need is $3 to get a new bottle to get me through the day. Can't you spare me $3 for a bottle?”

     The bare torso, the empty bottle, and the exposure of his lie about needing bus money put me into a momentary state of shock while my husband said to the man, “Alcohol is bad, you shouldn't drink.”

     And we managed to make our escape.

     Since then I do not believe most strangers who approach me with a tale of woe. And it is easy to say no if I have no cash on me – but these days I make sure my phone is visible and I can offer to call the police for anyone telling me a strapped-for-cash sob story.

     And the spare change I give to the street musicians.

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