New begging scam unearthed in NEW BEL ROAD

Off late I have been seeing a set of kids begging on new BEL road with a bunch of lights or pens or flowers in their hands. Two observations and interactions gave me following the info. I was having golagappe, this stall has both golagappe and momos, so the kid was requesting a fellow customer to buy him momos as he was hungry (apparently) and the customer was kind enough to ask the momo vendor to give him a plate, the child particular about having chicken momos. After the customer left, I enquired the vendor and he told me that it was the child’s 6th plate that evening alone and he does this everyday . And as it is still good business for the vendor he doesn’t reveal the truth. 15 mins later I walked into the city supermarket 5 buildings across and there I found the same child being given a 5kg bag of rice and some . Since I had just found out the momo scam, I asked the billing staff for more info and he told that this again is a repeated scenario and he takes at least one bag of 5kg rice everyday. On further enquiry , because obviously a family of 4-6 would require a maximum of 1 kg per day, he told me that they bring the extra bags and sell it back to the supermarket for half the price in cash . I believe this to be genuine as I’m a frequent customer of both the places and I’m acquainted to both the vendors and staff and I trust them enough to tell me the truth about these .

These kids are often seen doing this in front of pubs and eateries mostly to women and men who are with women . They do not go to a group of men.

After knowing the truth I have observed many more such instances and I realised the pattern and have now decided never to entertain such children.

Begging is fine, being charitable is fine. But being subject to a well planned scam is a big NO to me .