Great (and true!) panhandling story...
My wife and I were in Thailand visiting relatives a few years back. We were staying in Bangkok; one of the best ways to get around that down is by "Skytrain", an elevated railroad system. It is usually packed to the gills; there are stations every so often where you can get on and off.
We were getting off the train at a station near the end of the line. There was a woman lying on the grass adjacent to the station, with a small child with her. The kid was playing contentedly. She had a donation jar next to her. We stopped and engaged her in conversation (my wife translated). She had been crippled in an auto accident a couple of years previous. She was from Isaan (the northern part of the country), and she and her child were looking to get back up there so her relatives could help with raising her child. She was not able to work, and was raising money for train fare. She nearly had enough, and was looking forward to seeing her family again after a long absence.
I stuffed a 100 baht bill into her jar. We wished her well and walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. We got back to the station, intending to ride the skytrain back into the city, and saw that the woman and child were gone. There was a uniformed Skytrain official on the boarding deck for the train, so we asked him what happened to the woman. Apparently her boyfriend had picked up her and the child (on a motor scooter, no less) and left. The official also added "she'll be back tomorrow morning".
Yep. It was all a hoax, but VERY well done.
That's not all. Apparently this is a common scam and it is pulled at heavily tourist-frequented areas such as skytrain stations. But a lucrative side business is that you can actually rent a kid for a half a day!
A 100 baht lesson, but very well done. Sure beats a grubby bearded guy on a street corner holding out a can.
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