I typically don’t have cash on me. So when I get hit up (daily) by people on the street asking for money, I’m not lying when I tell them “Sorry. I don’t have any.” That’s not why I don’t carry cash, but it does keep me honest.
However, last night as I was waiting outside Cara’s office before we made our way to a National Geographic Live! seminar (loved it, btw) a man approached me and asked me for “five bucks, or something”. Before reciting my typical answer, I remembered that I had stuffed $1 in my back pocket for a Diet Coke earlier that day and it had gone unused. So I reached into my pocket and said, “I don’t have $5, but I have one…” and handed it to him.
He took it from me, held the dollar in the air for a moment and stared at me with a look that resembled something of Really? A dollar? and then turned and walked away without saying a word.
I wanted to shout after him YOU’RE WELCOME! I mean, doesn’t he know that was my Diet Coke money?
3 comments:
I will buy you a diet coke to reward you for your generosity. If it had been a $5 I would buy you 5 diet cokes!
You really tell the best stories.
I've had a similar experience, a lady in D.C. asked for $10 and when I gave her two and said, "that's really all I can give you" she said, "I can see a $5 sticking out of your wallet". I felt pretty dumb, but I actually did need the money for later. So I left with her glaring at my back (by the way, D.C. is a terrible place to be if you have a huge guilt complex about not giving everyone who needs it some extra cash).
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