Should We Give Alms to Beggars?

Should We Give Alms to Beggars?

The question has kept running in my mind for a long time because I’m beginning

to hesitate whether I should give alms to beggars from now on. I am a tenderhearted lady and always willing to offer my help to those who are really in trouble

or less fortunate than I am. However, things are getting complicated and indistinguishable nowadays. Their dirty shabbily clothed figures still can be seen everywhere in cities, in our capital Beijing as well, despite of the facts that the living standard of Chinese people has enhanced tremendously in the past two decades.

I have paid my attention on those modern beggars' characteristic behavior whenever I encountered with them on overpasses, in underground passages, at railway station entrances, and especially around those places of foreigners’ mecca, such

as San Litun Bar Street, tourist attractions, embassy area, diplomatic compounds

area etc. They are “professional” in some extent; they are no longer content

to beg for food or changes. To my disgust, they even goad little kids to pester, to hunt foreigners. It is said that most of the kids are not their own but borrowed as properties when begging …

The ugly dirty facts behind begging have been gradually revealed by reporters recently. Technically they are not beggars at all; they do not have to worry about making a living; some are professional begging all the year round; some are begging only in their leisure time – after harvest but before lunar New Year; and some of them have raised enough money from begging to build new houses! But one thing is clear that they simply refuse to go to Charitable Houses established

by governments at all levels.

The revealed facts made me uncomfortable and I doubt whether our kindness and well-meaning are merely being used. Now I only contribute to the Red Cross or in

response to the government's call when necessary and never show my kindness in the streets.

What do you think my friends?