MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you contribute to a stranger’s train ticket?

euterpe13

I was in Dom Rep earlier this year and heard a woman being told that she could not board the return flight to UK because she had not paid her departure tax - she had run out of money, and her CC would not work in the ATM. She was distraught - I gave her the money (20$) and my business card, and thought no more of it - didn't expect to be paid back, was just happy to help her out of a jam ( incidentally, the flight was full of returning holidaymakers, and no-one else in the boarding area moved a finger to help her).
2 weeks later I received a letter of thanks from her and a cheque for £20 - so having belief in people pays off.
Would I do it in the UK as well? Yes, I would and have.

brokeinwales

Nope because everytime I have tried to help a stranger, 90% don't thank me

Surely that's not the point? You don't give to receive...

sismith42

I have paid for a stranger's bus ticket (£3 or £4 to go out of town for the day), so probably yes. I didn't ask anything in return, and part of why I was helping her out was so that we could get going already :-)

Steph

Tricia_Mc

No, but I would take up her case with the ticket inspector and ask why she can't pay the £10 later if she gives her name and address - why should it be £10 on the spot or a £50 fine? That doesn't sound right to me.

NJW69

Yes I would. I recently went to London for work and left my purse at home by mistake and would like to think if I had needed it someone would have helped. The other day in a car park the ticket machine didn't take cc's and the one that took notes was out of order and someone offered to give me the change. Didn't need it in the end as they could change my note but I was very touched that they would have just given me the £1.50 if I had.

Stampede_2

Yes I would, either in full or in conjunction with other like minded folks.

You have to take the situation as you see it and make the call. In the big scheme of things and life the amount is not a lot, the benefit and good it could do enormous at the moment, and better to risk being 'taken for a ride' than not to help a genuine case.

What goes round comes round, once some one helped me in Holland as I tried to sort out the currency and get a ticket at a machine in Amsterdam Station. On the other side of the world a guy was trying to sell the jacket off his back as he'd lost his wallet at the rodeo and needed to cross several Provinces to get back home ..so I gave a small C$ contribution .. you don't get much more genuine or needy than that - he was so polite and reluctant to accept.

:j

In these sort of situations the only time to look down on someone is when your trying to help them get back up on their feet.

NeedBeer

Of course I would give her the £10 whether she was English or any other nationality (I assume the relevance of her being English is that we understand the language).

We all know the phrase "What goes around comes around". It means if you help someone when they need it, one day they might help someone else when they need it, and who knows, one day someone might help you when you need it. Trust people, help everyone - the 99% who genuinely need help and the 1% who might be scamming.

[Deleted User]

I probably would, but I'd tell her that to protect myself I wanted some kind of physical collateral. I'd give her my address, and tell her to send £10 plus a self-addressed jiffy bag for me to send her item back in.

Tracey_Morgan

Yes, it goes without saying. No one would want to be travelling alone and distressed. And if it's a con, well, you know what, you just put it down to experience. It's hardly a huge amount of money.

Delta-NC

What foreign country is this which accepts pounds!? :rotfl:

If I had the money to spare I would help them. Though as someone else suggested I would ask that they donate the amount to charity at a later date.