I saw a video clip today which showed an attractive Pakistani woman who became wealthy by begging. She's earned enough to buy two apartments and a restaurant in Malaysia. She's given up begging now, but she did say that most beggars don't need to beg, they have enough to live on for the rest of their lives.
This reminded me of a millionaire beggar about whom I wrote in DAWN in 1998. He appeared to be blind, deaf and lame, and when I discovered that he was a Memon like me, I collected some cash and went to his house, where I found that he was actually a fake beggar, and a millionaire to boot. In another article for Tribune, I had estimated that there must be more than two million beggars in Karachi, particularly in the month of fasting.
In Karachi itself, practically every locality has a social organization providing free food to the poor. Yet whenever I've told beggars to go there, they turn away. Apparently they don't want the food, they want the money. One day in Clifton, I was about to give money
to a child beggar when he told me to buy him a burger instead. It turned out that there was a goon watching him and if I gave the kid any money, he would come over and take it from him. Apparently the goon had many such children begging and making him rich.
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