An Increase in the Number of Beggers?

This is getting ridiculous! I was panhandled out in the front yard, this morning! I went out to the car to put Mother's library books in the trunk, and a man came across the street from the store with a "sob story" about his car breaking down. He asked me for a ride. I told him that I couldn't give him a ride, because my eighty-two year old Mother lived with me, and I couldn't leave her. So he asked for some gas money, five dollars worth, to be exact. I didn't have a five, so I gave him two one-dollar bills, after getting him to agree not to replay me.

That's not too bad, but it comes on the heels of the man that panhandled me yesterday. It was at the Burger King restaurant on High Street. When he asked for help, I suggested that I buy him something to eat. Instead of saying, "Thank you," he wanted to know what I was going to buy him. I asked him what he needed. He replied that he was hungry enough to eat three sausage biscuits. I told him that was two too many and walked into the store. I bought my breakfast and got another to go. When I finished eating and went outside, the guy was nowhere to be seen. I took the breakfast back to the office and gave it to the company secretary, who was glad to get it!

The day before that, which was Thursday, I was panhandled in the parking lot of the Shell convenience store on High Street. I could go on. My point is that there seem to be more people asking for a handout than there used to be. If that is the case, I wonder why?