Funny story but I would be cautious to play around with people like that cause seems like you ran into them many times...who's to say they won't have a weapon and remember you next time. You wouldn't want that, especially with your wife around. The best thing to do is the nice thing, just say no politely or give them some change. I was approached several times last week downtown and usually just say no but felt generous and gave some change and couple bucks away...I figure I could spend $2 on a starbucks coffee, why not give .50 cents to a fellow being, regardless of what it may be spent on.
A couple of weeks ago we left a case full of really old wine that had gone bad outside - you could see chunks from the corks floating around in those bottles. We left it out there for heavy trash pickup, but it was gone before the truck arrived. So I figure I've given my share.
before the construction started on wilcrest and I-10 there was a guy with a little red gas can that'd i'd see once a week begging for money. dude must have run out of gas a lot.
When I lived in Atlanta there were always people who had heartbreaking stories about needing bus money to get to Alabama. For some reason about 10 people that I met had the exact same story. My favorite, though, comes from about two years ago in Houston. A car pulls up to me as I am getting back into mine. A woman calls to me from the driver's seat (I am on her passenger side) and asks for money for gas to get to the hospital because her friend was bitten by a snake. Pan to the guy in the passenger seat - reclined position, holding his stomach and going "oooohh, ooohhh." It was pure awesome. I told them I had nothing and then watched as they drove around various parking lots and pulled up on people. Not a waste of gas at all. Of course, I also had a guy pull up to me while I was in my front yard to ask for money to buy tires. The guy he needed to buy them from was letting him borrow them to get money but he had to go back...or something like that. I was pissed he came to my front yard so I gave him literally all the cash I had - about $1.50 (I never carry cash) and he got pissed because he wanted more. At that point I didn't care if he knew where I lived and got a little nasty.
