The sacrifice of this man brought a tear to my eye.......

[LovelyLadyLux]

A man was walking down the street when he was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless man who asked him for a couple of dollars for dinner.

The man took out his wallet, extracted ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money, will you buy some beer with it instead of dinner?"

"No, I had to stop drinking years ago," the homeless man replied.

"Will you use it to go fishing instead of buying food?" the man asked.

"No, I don't waste time fishing," the homeless man said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."

"Will you spend this on greens' fees at a golf course instead of food?" the man asked.

"Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless man. "I haven't played golf in 20 years!"

"Will you spend the money on a woman in the red light district instead of food?" the man asked.

"What disease would I get for ten lousy bucks?" exclaimed the homeless man.

"Well," said the man, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you home for a terrific dinner cooked by my wife."

The homeless man was astounded. "Won't your wife be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty and I probably smell pretty disgusting."

The man replied, "That's okay. It's important for her to see what a man looks like after he has given up beer, fishing, golf and sex."


Whilst this is funny it brings to me a question I often grapple with these days. Is your 'giving' unconditional or do when you give actually have conditions attached to what you give?

I have no problem at all 'helping' and often do help various charity or chariable venues BUT, at times, I have had a hard time accepting that once I've given I do attach (not tangible) conditions to what I give. I.e. I've been helping the homeless here for quite a few years. There are about 600 homeless who have organized into a group and are now petitioning the city to give them a tract of land (at taxpayers expense), erect small wooden buildings they can live in complete with showers, bathrooms etc and can infact if the city goes ahead with this petition score themselves free housing for life. Am not sure why 'this' aspect (them getting free for life housing) rankles me. It is when suddenly 'homeless' who have done nothing other than bascially live off handouts can now get a free to them (but expense to taxpayers) place to live for life.

Can you give and be totally 100% ok with your charitable giving be totally 100% free and clear or do you really attach conditions to your giving?

This always come up for me as we enter into this season of "holidays" that also has a component of charitable giving.

[BillH]

Love the Humour in the Joke LLL ..

As for giving, follow your heart if you feel the cause is right..

[Grandad]

I too like the joke LLL.....very funny

But as for charitable giving, in its many forms, we are quite generous in response to disaster appeals, children in need and red nose day, and specific charities like heart foundation and cure cancer.

We often hear stories of exactly where those donations end up or at least what small proportion actually gets used for the quoted purpose. And most of the big charities have full time paid staff with a very highly paid chief executive. Somehow charity seems to lose its meaning in such cases.

We will continue to give but it would be good to know that more of our donations get to help those in need and not just line the pockets of those who are not.

[LovelyLadyLux]

You've hit one of the nails directly on the head Grandad i.e. we get inundated here with photos on TV of children eating out of garbage dumps and living in equally squalid and appalling conditions however the organizations that are designed to help them frequently rake mega bucks off the top before the 'children' get anything. I'm much more inclined to give if I know the contribution is going directly to a specific person.