1. It’s 10:30 at night. You’re watching TV, when someone knocks quietly on the front door. Do you:
- Answer the door.
- Ignore it.
- Yell “Go away.”
- Pretend you’re not in.
- Call the police.
- Fetch your gun.
2. Imagine you open the door. It’s dark, and a light rain has recently stopped. There’s a man at the door. He’s reasonably well dressed, but has torn the pocket of his trousers on something. He’s not obviously drunk or high. He starts to tell you a somewhat confused story involving a broken down car. Do you:
- Listen politely.
- Shut the door on him.
- Tell him to go away.
- Threaten to call the police.
- Close the door and actually call the police.
- Fetch your gun.
3. Imagine you have allowed him to finish his story of woe. He tells you that he was at a restaurant with friends, but that his car broke down, and that it seems the battery is cracked and he doesn’t have the cash to go to the nearest store and get a replacement. He begs you for some money, promising to give it back as soon as he can. He offers to leave his military ID with you as some kind of collateral.
Suppose for the sake of this exercise that the amount he’s asking for is of no consequence to you; that you could blow that much on CDs and not have to think about it. Suppose you also have a pretty good idea that his story doesn’t really hold up, and that you’re very unlikely to see the money again. Do you:
- Give him the money anyway.
- Give him the money, but insist on collateral.
- Shut the door on him.
- Tell him that you know he’s scamming you, and that he should go away.
- Threaten to call the police.
- Close the door and actually call the police.
- Fetch your gun.
- Dear god, please don’t tell me you actually gave him money, you idiot.
You don’t have to give your reasoning, and there are no prizes.
Tagged: begging, philosophy, Samaritan, scam, society
June 17th, 2006 at 07:50 -0600
i would probably let him use my cell to make any necessary phone calls, but not let him in to use my land line. (not that i have one.)
i wouldn’t give him any cash, because i’m broke. but if i weren’t and i wouldn’t miss said cash, i probably would. whatever he actually needs it for, dude clearly needs it more than i.
June 17th, 2006 at 09:34 -0600
there was a show over here in the UK on the BBC highlighting this as a scam. it stopped short of going up and knocking on people’s doors, more about approaching them in the street, but the story was the same.
i’ve fallen for it walking down the street - a guy asking for money for petrol (doesn’t work in the US because it’s so cheap). i wouldn’t have been sure that it was a scam, but he came up to me again 30 minutes later (i’d been home and was on my way out again).
before that happened when i thought it was a scam but didn’t know 100% i was ok giving the money (so long as it wasn’t much). now i’d politely tell people to go away.
June 18th, 2006 at 21:22 -0600
Oh yeah, I missed something: he also asked if he could borrow the phone to call a friend who might be able to come tow or jump start his car. I let him, but took the handset out to him. I thought it might be a 900 number scam, and was ready to grab the phone if he started dialling too many digits. It was a local number when I checked the call history, there was no reply.
Mia, my reasoning was much like yours: if his life sucks so much that the best way he can spend a rainy night is wandering the streets begging people at their doors to lend him a small amount of cash, he clearly needs the money more than me.
Then again, I’m told that the bus stop is a local spot for drug deals. But, he didn’t seem like a druggie; no obvious signs.
People do beg for gas money here, in fact. They usually stand with a cardboard sign at a major road intersection.