This incident might have happened with you in your day-to-day life. This is new style of begging. Well dressed man, with his family approaches and narrates the story-“I landed here from [some place name] in search of work. Unfortunately, I lost all my money. Me and my family members are hungry now. If you give Rs.200, we will survive for a day or two.” To mark the genuineness, some people also ask phone number or address along with the cash in order to return the amount.

The same incident happened to me couple of months back but in a different way. I and my cousin planned a small trip to Guruvayur, a small town in Trissur district of Kerala. Since my friend also planned to join us, we opted for four wheeler for the journey. We (I and my cousin) were waiting for my friend in Jyothy junction at Mangalore.

During our wait, a mid-aged man with a small handbag approached us. He asked me “Malayalam ariyo” (Do you know Malayalam). I said “Korcha Korcha” (I know little bit), then he continued the discussion in English (Just awesome he knows English)

He said: “I came from Kannur to meet my daughter, she is currently taking course on Nursing at Manipal. During my journey from Manipal to Mangalore, I lost my wallet. Now, I don’t have enough money to travel to Kannur. Would you be kind enough to lend me Rs.300/- for my journey”. He also gave a address of his house in a piece of paper and said that ” I will be sending this money to you using internet banking”(He also know Internet, Banking and combination eBanking)

After listening to the story my cousin just saw me and silently asked me what to do…? The man looked like genuine to me and I was thinking how to help this man. Suddenly a thought flashed in my brain and I shared the same with my cousin. I said-“Anyways we have car and we have only 3 people. We are going to Guruvayur and Kannur comes on the way to Guruvayur, why cannot we include this man?” My cousin nodded his head as an approval.

I explained the same thought to the man and also added that-“You don’t have to pay anything for this favor..” The man started to think. After few second he said. “Why to trouble you…? you just pay me the money I will manage myself.” I explained again my thought and also added that we will drop you till your home”. (Anyways he gave the address also right?). I said that-“We are waiting for my friend as soon as he arrives, we will be starting off with our journey.”

He waited for 2 to 3 minutes. Suddenly he started to yell- “Oh my GOD.. I left one luggage in the restaurant… wait here… I will be just be back..”

Finally you can guess what happened next. Yes exactly, my friend arrived after half an hour and we three of us started with the journey.