[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

There are always such stories.

It is like saying that every body who has a job is earning in lacs per month. All of us would know that is wrong, but it is convenient to say, on the basis of occasional examples, that all beggars are rich!

But I do agree with esteem_lover that it is good to focus ones charity and to help those we know.

There are such stories too. Begging is the last resort for any individual to earn a livelihood. But here we find some people making it an occupation & quite well off too.

They are the Ambanis, Premzis of beggar world.

[yamaniac]

well! wait till you read this one

Maid admits to hiring out baby
Bangalore is known for its outsourcing - from projects to hired killings. But this one went too far and too cruel. A maid hired by an MNC couple rented out their baby for Rs 100 to a racket of beggars on the streets of Bangalore.
Early every morning, the couple used to dress their seven month old baby with the finest of all clothes, keep fresh milk and costly eatables ready and leave the child in the hands of a maid who was hired through an established agency.
But as soon as the couple left, the maid used to mix sedatives in the milk, remove all the costly clothes and dress the kid in torn and dirty clothes, according to a report in The Times of India. And then he would be picked up by agents who run a flourishing racket of beggars on the streets of Bangalore.
For the whole day the drowsy child would be carried by a beggar on her shoulders and dropped back in the evening to the maid's hands. The maid used to spend her time happily watching the serials and movies on the telly and eat all the stuff left behind for the kid.
Every day, the couple were surprised and stumped to find their child inactive and drowsy. He never used to play or create a ruckus.
One day, the mother of the kid returned home early from work. To her shock, she found the maid in front of the TV and the baby was missing. The maid went into panic and was confronted by the mother of the kid. The maid then confessed and told her that the child had been rented out and would return by evening.
The mother was shocked to find her kid come back dressed in tattered and dirty clothes and sleeping on the shoulders of an unknown woman whose job it was to beg daily.
Sources say that Bangalore has a flourishing begging racket run by a mafia and the daily earnings run into a few lakhs. The mafia has divided Bangalore into zones and they send out the beggars. By evening, the agents take a huge pie of the earnings and give a few rupees to the beggars, mostly women. Sometimes, targets are fixed for the beggars and if they fail to `achieve' the sales target, they are sacked.

Source: Crime: Maid rents out child of MNC couple to beggars - 1 - *News

[shankar.balan]

forget the horror stories for a moment and think that carity begins at home - help those who serve you and work for you - try and ameliorate their lot to some extent.
much easier to succeed if all of us adopt this philosophy and give as much as possible to the local community - maids, hired help, poor construction workers, poor kids etc in your own neighbourhood. even poor stray animals in the neighbourhood - at least one can leave some water out in an old bucket or something - considering summer is coming and in this concrete jungle there are many thirsty animals wandering by desperately looking for a bit of water!
imagine the ripple effect this small internal neighbourhood effort can create just in case say, the lot of us on this forum pull together and do something in our own areas.
but it is also a fact that we are not equipped to take on the world's troubles. having said that, lets try and do just a little bit - that may make all the difference in someone elses life!

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

The people I never give to are the ones that i do not know of. In India, there are so many people that you can help, so that makes it easier to choose whom to help. Most often than not, the beggars that we see on the roads turn out to be richer than some of us.