At Alm's Length

I have all kinds of people working in my office. All have their unique set of habits. One of them for example, has this habit of giving alms to the poor beggars sitting on the railway bridge. Now, there are two bridges - one with the beggars is usually crowded and the other is fairly empty. But this colleague of mine prefers the one with the beggars. It's become a ritual for him to give alms - everyday. My boss often cracks this joke on him that he should be opening a bank account for them close to the railway station.Will save him the trouble of passing through all that crowd every morning!

There are four beggars precisely. Two are lepers, one's an old lady and the other is an old blind man. My colleague feels very compassionate towards the old. 'Poor man, he's blind..., 'Poor woman, she must have been driven out of her home...' I have utmost respect for what he feels. But I still think twice before giving them any money myself.

One evening, heading back home, we were waiting for the train to enter the platform. As soon as it arrived, we see the old man who was supposedly blind, running past us and getting into the train.
My colleague shouted in stunned surprise - 'Oh, man! I've been giving him money since two years thinking he was blind!'

This called for an inspirational song -

One Blind Man, One Blind Man,
See how he runs, See how he runs
How the hell did he get his sight
To run after the train with all his might
We stared at him with stunned delight
One Blind Man!

(Set to the tune of Three Blind Mice)

Lesson to be learnt - Keep beggars at arm's length!