The Spilled Sandwiches Strategy

Oh, no!



Quite a tragedy!

Among the many ways to separate well-intentioned people from their money, the spilled food tray might be the most ambitious.



So, one day you happen to be walking down a street behind a guy carrying a tray of drinks and sandwiches, apparently hurrying to supply some office, an art gallery or something.

Oh, the terrible tragedy of it all!

But, suddenly the man trips, scattering the food across the sidewalk. He kneels and sobs tragically. His whole afternoon's work is lost, not to mention the ingredients and the delivery contract.

Sympathetic to the man's bad luck, you reach into your pocket and pull out a few bills. 'Tough luck. Hope you do better the next time, guy.'

Attracting a crowd (and my dog). How can we help?

But stop for a moment and take a look at that food. The 'sandwiches' are just pieces of cheap white bread stuck together with a bit of butter or mayonaise. And the 'drinks,' if you could taste one, would be colored water, I bet.

A helping hand.

I've spotted guys like this in central Bogotá and other cities several times. Theirs might be the best panhandling theatrics, surpassing the guy with the trained beggar dogs, the folks with the exaggerated body lesions and even the cold-hearted man I once met who'd apparently injured his dog to pry donations out of dog lovers 'for food and medicine for the poor animal.'

The food spilling manuever must be pretty effective to make it worth all the trouble in preparation and the cost of the materials, altho I bet the guy gets discarded bread, which he reuses over and over. Water's free and mayonnaise is cheap.

Another theatrical beggary I've noticed recently around Bogotá are guys armed with shovels and hoes to give themselves an industrious, hard-working appearance. 'Give me money, since I'm ready to work, as you can see.' Sure, they look out of place amidst the cement and asphalt, which require a jackhammer instead of a shovel. But I imagine there's an unconscious psychological effect.

I've also seen more energetic version of this, in which a man stands by a pothole and industriously fills it - probably only to empty it again after you've past by.

Even if you don't feel sympathy, consider giving them a coin for ingenuity and acting.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours





Mooching Mongrels

Good master or exploiter, this homeless man in Chapinero found a way to turn these stray dogs into a profit stream. Unfortunately, I suspect that the coins this guy collects go to wine or drugs, and that the food that he and his four-footed friends eat comes from the garbage cans.

I've seen variations on the theme in Bogotá, including one set of dogs trained to carry bowls in their mouths and approach diners in outdoor restaurants. But I was once approached by a guy leading a dog with a festering sore on its side and begging for money for the dog's medical treatment. That beggar was too delicate, I guess, to mutilate himself. More photos of human-canine relationships here.