So I was pumping gas this afternoon when a young man startled me. "Excuse me, ma'am, but I'm awfully embarrassed to ask, but I need to get back to Waxahachie and I don't have enough gas. Do you happen to have any spare change to help me?" I immediately answered that I did not and wished him luck.
As soon as he walked away, all kinds of thoughts flooded through my mind. Tons of Bible verses like Proverbs 19:17 - "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will reward him for what he has done" and tons of adages of helping a stranger is like helping God and I called the boy back. "I only have $1.15 in change, but that should help, Good luck." He quickly answered "Thank you, God Bless." and I felt good.
I saw him ask a couple of other people and some gave, some did not. I then watched as he got into his newer Chevy Impala. I fully expected him to pull up next to me and fill his tank. But....he didn't. He pulled right out of that gas station. To go to the next one, perhaps? I don't know, but then I did not feel good.
As I continued to pump my gas, I thought to myself "Well, if I got suckered, at least it was only for a buck or so."
I remembered many years ago while in St Louis, my father and I were walking when a man asked for money. He told us he was really hungry and needed a couple of dollars. My father said "I'd be happy to take you to get a meal, come with us". The man became belligerent and said he'd rather have the money. My father shrugged and said "Guess he wasn't that hungry".
I thought that would I should have done was ask the boy if I could put a couple of bucks of gas in his car to help him on his way and maybe that would have shown his true colors.
I got back in the car and quickly explained what had happened to Dallas. I asked him what he would have done. Dallas' easy response "Even if he was lying, you still should have given him everything you had." Lesson learned.
