The beggar smiled through his dirt encrusted face, quickly snatching the coins from his bowl. The hand retracted into his tattered tunic.
“Wouldn’t,” I asked, “it be better to show how many others have donated? Social proof and all that. Won’t people say, if others have given, then I should give?”
He shook his head sadly.
“Or they say,” he coughed, “if others have given, I need not. But whichever, there are many beggars in this world, and thieves. A full bowl is no better than an empty bowl, sometimes. Sometimes an empty bowl is better than a full one.”
Tale Told 