ChildrenFictionBooks .com

beggar

My mother told me a story about beggars who cannot be choosers. Mum habitually collected discarded clothes which were new but not used because they were unsuitable. She had a few women magazines that listed donation drives for needy folks. Mum used to call up women who were interested to receive donations.

One day, Mother accumulated a large bag of clothing and made an appointment for a lady’s daughter to collect it at our place. The daughter was about 12 years old. The girl took public transport from her home in the suburbs and traveled for around 2 hours to our home in the city. She came to collect a large bag of clothes. After she returned home, Mother received a call from the lady to thank us.

There was something the lady said that was bitingly acidic. She told Mother that there were only a few good pieces in the bag of clothes. Mum told me she was hurt by the lady’s jab. The bag held many pieces of new clothing but because it was given away free of charge, the recipient assumed they were old hand-me-downs. To rub salt into injury, the woman hurt Mum’s feelings.

Who said “Beggars cannot be choosers”? Sometimes, even a beggar wants to be choosy. That was the last time Mother collected clothes and items to donate away. Subsequently, we packed up unwanted stuff into bags and left them at the garbage disposal center for the cleaners to pick up.