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Was she desperate - or just trying to con me?
IT WAS Saturday evening and I was walking alone through High Wycombe town centre when two teenage girls came up to me.
"Excuse me sir, I am sorry to bother you. Do you have £1 to give me for a bus to get home?" pleaded one of them.
She looked so innocent that I felt a pang of guilt as I politely replied I didn't and walked on.
She thanked me and went the other way.
Now, it is entirely possible that my mean-spirited actions left a young girl stranded in the dark streets of town at 7.30pm on a Saturday night. It is also entirely possible that I shall go to hell for my refusal.
But before you damn me, let me tell you why I desisted from being charitable to a needy fellow human being.
I cast my mind back a quarter-of-a-century to Leicester Square in London where I was spending a Saturday night out with friends.
A young man, with desperation shining out of his eyes, walked up to our group and in broken foreign tones asked us for some money to help him with an urgent matter.
I can't recall whether it was his passport or his accommodation. But whatever it was, he made a compelling and plausible case for help. He even showed us paperwork.
Now I wasn't born yesterday and even at that point I feared we were being had. But in those days, perhaps I was more noble and more willing to give people the benefit of the doubt.
So I told my mates that even if it was a scam, the bloke deserved some cash for the effort he'd put into his acting.
As a result, we had a whip-round and gave him a fair bit of money. And we departed, my conscience clear.
About an hour later, we walked into an amusement arcade and we saw him there with his pals, clearly intent on using our cash for the slot machines.
I shrugged and vowed never to be had again.
Fast forward back to High Wycombe in January 2008 and, for a moment, I felt like giving up my resolve and helping this girl. After all, she could have been genuine.
Perhaps she didn't have a mobile phone with which to call her parents. Perhaps they were out for the night. And perhaps there was a bus that actually ran off-peak on Saturday to her home.
Maybe I should have stayed to ask her these questions, but I was in a hurry and anyway that approach from a middle-aged man may have come across as a bit creepy to a couple of young girls.
Maybe I should have just suspended judgment and given the money in the belief it was the right thing for me to do.
But if I did this and it was a trick, then my naivety would only encourage the con to be perpetuated.
My cynicism won and I walked on.
So was I right? What would you have done?
The only thing I can add is that half an hour later, I made my way back down the same street and spied what I thought to be the very same girl hanging around on a corner with a bunch of her mates.
My charitable readers will say this was because everyone else in High Wycombe that night was as mean as me and she never got the £1 she needed to get back home.
But if you believe that, then you probably shouldn't be allowed out on your own any more.
6:22pm Friday 18th January 2008
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