Monday 13 October 2014

Day 77 Any spare change please

Some people are just so ungrateful, take for example the tramp I bumped into on my way home from the pub the other night. A poor homeless man who had no shame in asking for 10 crowns for a hot dog sausage or something maybe a bit stronger. 

10 Crowns is probably 30 British pence. I’d had a drink or two and was in a good mood so I thought what the heck, let’s break the habit of a lifetime and give this man what he’d asked for. So I dug around in my pocket for change and pulled out the only coin I had, a 20 crown coin. Now this left in me in a quandary. I mean, the man had only asked for 10, would it make me look arrogant if I offered him double he had asked for? Would it make me look like a soft touch if I gave him double what he’d requested? Would I be like the pied piper with a stream of tramps behind me expecting my to throw my money at them? I certainly couldn’t put the money away, things had got too far for that to be an option. So I did what I am sure any of you would have done, and I asked the tramp if he had change for a twenty. Now my Czech is good enough to say that, but it was not good enough to understand much of what the man said in return although I did understand a few choice words. Needless to say I gave him my shiny 20 and got out of there.  But he really didn’t have to be so rude.

No comments:

Post a Comment