To give or not to give? That is the question.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. At about 8.00 am, my daughter and I drove to a diagnostics center for some regular blood work. I was lucky enough to get a parking spot right in front of the building. We walked in and got ourselves added to the self-check-in portal and it said the wait time for us was 21 minutes. We looked around and realized that we were the only people not wearing a mask. (No that does not make us science deniers or conspiracy theory followers. 😉 We are just a couple of ordinary people who forgot to take a mask with us – Maybe we got too used to not wearing masks). Anyway, we didn’t want to stand inside the office and make others uncomfortable so we decided to go back and wait in the car.

Like most dads of a teenage daughter, am sitting there and making stupid dad jokes to distract her from looking at her phone. I had kept the door open for ventilation and didn’t turn the AC on. I saw a man walking towards my car on the left. He looked a little older perhaps 60+, well dressed – Shorts, T Shirt, Socks and Shoes, hair well combed.

He said, “Hey chief, you speak English?” For a second, I thought he was going to ask me for directions to someplace so I said “Yes… how can I help you?”. He said he is from somewhere in Texas and his mom is admitted at Memorial Herman and he doesn’t even have money for gas… Well, at least I think that was the gist of what he said. Honestly, the moment he started telling a story he lost me because I knew what was coming. He was going to ask me for some cash. So am hearing what he is saying but am really not listening. My mind started wondering if this person is telling the truth. But how am I to say if he is being genuine while I am not even listening? My mind is running all these possibilities already… A scammer? Guy collecting money for booze? drugs? Perhaps going to attack us and I need to protect my daughter? Am already telling myself – “you should have stayed inside”, “you shouldn’t have kept the door open and nor made eye contact with him”

As he finished his statement by saying “can you spare some cash? any cash?” I had a fraction of a second to make a decision. I could have said No and looked away and closed the door of the car. If any one of those bad theories I had in mind were to be true, and I had said no, then kudos to me… But what if this guy was genuine and I had turned him away? The guilt would bother me for a long time. So I made the decision to pick up my wallet – Looked in I had 2 one dollar bills and a $20 bill. I was like ‘Aw man why can’t my wallet make my decision easy?’ Now I am confronted with another decision to make – After all he asked for any cash. Should I just give him $2 or give him $20? I pulled the $20 and gave it to him.

He thanked me and walked past my car, I was watching him for a while on the car’s rearview mirror. He kept walking and at one point I looked away and decided to get back to the building and check the status of the queue.

Since the incident, this thought has been bothering me. Did I make a mistake? Should I have not given him any money? I guess I would never know. Am sure a lot of us face this situation every day. What would you do?? My situation reminded me of this Jim Carrey dialogue from Liar Liar “Because I believe you will booze with it. I just want to get from the car to my office without being confronted by the decay western society. Plus I’m cheap” 🙂

Image Courtesy – Youtube – Took a screenshot from the movie scene.