RM3 is nothing

And so I was at the bank the other day. Outside the bank, on the five foot way, sat a blind man hawking his tissues. You get several small packets for RM3. RM3 only! It is just a very small sum of money. As usual I bought from him. Then I hopped into my car where a friend was waiting, who proceeded to question me on why I bought those tissues. His reasoning is that there are a lot of syndicates going around cheating people, marking up tissue prices, etc. so we should not buy from these cheats.

I understood his argument and even agreed with it somewhat.

However, the way I see it is that here we have a blind man who very easily and understandably could have turned to begging. However, instead of taking the easy and despicable way out, his remaining sense of dignity and pride made him at least offer something in return, trying to eke out a meagre sustenance through honest means. I despise beggars. One should always do something to carve out a life for oneself, and not just beg. It is the ultimate loss of sense of self, of pride, of identity. Hence I always buy from and support such causes. The bottom line is, I rather risk being cheated of my RM3 then to risk the real chance that this man might go hungry.

Would you rather keep RM3 instead and run the risk of a genuinely blind and yet wanting an honest life man to go hungry?