Forget about the everyday beggars on the streets, unfortunately limbless or visually impaired and dressed in tatters. These new parasites are smartly dressed and probably make hassle-free money. It’s hard to walk ten feet without meeting these guys who sometimes look healthier than horses women trying to give you some hard luck story to get you to part with your cash. These people who seem greedier than starved dogs like hanging around Kisimenti and Kwa Rubangura. There is a woman I met who with teary eyes narrated to me how her only daughter had died and she had no money to arrange the funeral. Fighting back my tears, I emptied my not- so- happy wallet and said a silent prayer for her deceased child. A few days later I met her again. She came to me with the same line! I looked at her and felt the urge to punch some decency into her! “Did your ‘only’ daughter resurrect and then die again?” I sarcastically asked. The shameless woman just laughed callously and walked away, leaving me perplexed and offended at her cruel deception. While decent citizens like myself are working our heads off to make ends meet, these rotten rats are sitting on their lazy bottoms doing God knows what all day waiting for us to leave work so they can harass us. Sometimes they will stop you and beg you for as little as Rwf500, claiming they lost their wallets and don’t have money for transport to wherever they are going. On seeing how smartly they are dressed, you can’t suspect them of being con artists. There is a very good chance you will just give them money and say sorry while they silently laugh at you and brand you the biggest fool in history – of course until another fool comes along. I know times are hard. But it is that way for all of us. It is not right to take advantage of kind people with emotional blackmail tactics. Some of us want to help and make a difference to those who really need it. But we are discouraged by the treachery of these fraudsters and it is hard to gauge who is sincere and who isn’t. You can’t dress up in a decent suit and walk up to someone to ask for money and think they will suspect that you are the biggest fraud since Milli Vanilli. Do not get ideas! Next time these lousy phony beggars try to mess with you, tell them to go sell their kidney or donate some blood. They can sell their souls for all I care!
