Question about giving cash to panhandlers on the subway

Hopped the L train in Brooklyn yesterday morning and this guy gets on asking for money. He looked legit tired, not high or anything. I offered him my extra granola bar but he said he needed cash for a bus ticket. Do you guys usually hand over cash or stick to food? I felt bad ignoring him but also don't want to enable bad habits. How do you handle this?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlesanderson4d ago

Is he standing at a bus station later or was that just a story to get cash?

kelly.dylan4d ago

Man, I hear you @charlesanderson but honestly this kind of thing happens all the time around here. People spin up these wild stories to get a few bucks or attention, and it's just another version of the same pattern you see at bus stops or on the street every day. Someone asks for money with a sad story, but you can never really tell if it's true or just a line they rehearsed. It's like the whole city has turned into a stage where everyone's performing some version of a need. You gotta ask yourself if there's any real way to tell the difference or if we're all just getting played.