Thinking about that post I made last night reminded me of something I had forgotten, let me share the story with you.
I usually do the grocery shopping for our family, and when I went to the store every once in a while there would be an old man sitting outside the store with his old dog and a clothes hanger full of something I couldn’t quite make out what it was. Curiosity finally got the better of me one day and I walked over to him after I exited the store to see what it was he had.
The first thing I noticed was this old man was blind, the second thing was a donation sign and finally what made me curious in the first place was the hanger which I could now see was full of little yarn dolls that he apparently had made himself.
Well he had a tin cup in his hand for the donations so I said hi to him and put some money in his cup and petted his dog for a minute, he told me to pick out a doll and I thought “I’m not gonna take his stock I’ll leave it for him to sell again” so I rustled the hanger around so he would think I was taking one said thanks and left. Looking back on that interaction I felt a little bad about taking advantage of his blindness like that,
But I was about to feel much worse…
This exchange went on for months, he wasn’t there every week but when he was I would stop chat with him a minute, pet his dog, put some money in the tin cup and rustle the hanger, it almost became routine until one day as I put the money in the cup and was about to rustle the hanger he grabbed my hand and said ” son I’m not a beggar, I make these dolls and give them to folks kind enough to help me out so if you’re not going to take one then take your money back I don’t need hand outs”
He had been counting his dolls every time I left and he was on to me!
I was so ashamed, not for the deceit but because I was robbing this old man of his dignity. There’s not much left to the story, I started taking the dolls and gave them away to little girls in the store.
God bless that little old man,
Not everyone with their hand out is out to take advantage of you he reminded me of that.
So give it just a little extra thought before you say no..
Wyldesyde007 