dwebb, we saw the same beggar. I wasn't sure exactly what to do. If he was faking, and I can't say with exact certainity he was, this was the best job of faking I'd ever seen.

We felt really, really bad. As far as we could tell, he had an obvious deformity and hardship. We gave a 2 euro coin, because I couldn't risk being on the wrong side of karma when my time was up. I have to think he was one of the authentic, in-need-of-help beggars out there.

It's a judgment. The theieves unfortunately know this.

My husband when being panhandled always offered to buy the person a hot meal be it here at home (basically SF) or in Italy. Only a couple of people ever excepted. He generally was sworn at.

Like Faina we gave to organizations that helped the homeless. We did not believe in giving money for drugs, liquor, cigarettes or to their "pimps" that set them up panhandling. I still feel the same way.

Read the Sherlock Holmes story "The Man with the Twisted Lip." The scam of looking as pathetic as possible for the maximum profit is an old old story. Begging, accompanied by picking pockets, is a profession.

My defense is to take a picture of the "beggars." Even better is to take a video. They run like rabbits.

I was in Amsterdam last weekend. There was a platoon of police spread out in front of the east tunnel watching everybody. There were no "beggars" as there have always been in the past.

travelbear I know what you mean. Karma is the ultimate payback and in the end everybody gets theirs, but since I have a plaque with my name on it in Hell already, I felt okay in passing this guy up. (smile).

Besides, I collected about 50 Jesus/Halleluyer points when I attended mass at St. Peter's the day before and for me, that's a big big deal!

So you reach out and help those you can and those you can't are probably the con artists you don't need to help anyway.