To give or not to give alms to beggars

WHILE walking to a store to buy groceries recently, I passed by a large roll-on-roll-off (RORO) garbage bin parked by the road. A middle-aged man dressed in rags was scavenging for discarded food and drinks from the bin. I felt sorry for him, so I gave him RM10 and told him to go and buy some food. He took the money, stared at me for a while and then went back to what he was doing earlier, completely disregarding what I had said to him.

After finishing my shopping, I bumped into the man again. This time, he was coming out of a 4-D shop with tickets in hand. He did not recognise me, and I wondered if he had used the money I had given him for his “investment” instead of buying food!