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

sharronsharron

A year ago I wouldn't have thought twice about helping but was ripped off for £30.00 by a young girl who's 'purse had been stolen' and was only visiting my town. Turns out she was a junkie who had been doing this for ages. Found out when it was slashed across the front page of my local newspaper when she had been caught!
Defo think again before I share my hard earned!!

gizmo2brian

I wouldn't think twice about helping this woman out and giving her a tenner. What goes around comes around and somewhere down the line I would be rewarded in some way for my act of generosity!

wildthing01

i have been caught out on foreign trains before, where i didn't know you had to stamp your ticket for it to be valid (i've never yet understood why - you spend the money on the ticket, but it's not valid till you put it through the stamping machine - why not - i've paid for it????). anyway, in both cases i had to pay the fine, and being foreign and therefore not fully understanding the system was apparently no defence - i just had to cough up (despite being a poor student at the time). i would never in a million years have asked anyone else to sub me. it's just one of those lessons you have to learn in life. and it taught me to fully check all details like that, so i'm not caught out again.

Diesel44

It's a YES here.

wildthing01

ps - i think the reason the woman's nationality is mentionned is probably to let us know that being an english person and thus an english speaker, she ought to know the system (as opposed to a foriegner who might be forgiven for not understanding the system????) i don't think it's meant to invoke discussion around racial traits.....

psychicliv

i have been i this situation, nearly bailed the girl out of £20 (and i'm a student) until the girls attitude changed my mind. She was so argumentative and rude to the inspector who is only doing his job that i decided to keep out of it. Btw it was entirely her fault, she had chosen to take an earlier train on a prebooked must travel only on train indicated ticket.

carolinosourus

I like the idea about asking them to donate to charity the amount that you gave them. I think I probably would but it depends on her attitude. If she was apologetic and it sounded like she had made a mistake then I would, however if she was rude and defensive then I don't think I would. Mind you, if she was polite about it then she may have been let off anyway.
A similar thing happened to me in a supermarket recently, there was an elderly couple in front of me and had obviously overspent, they didn't have enough cash to pay the full amount for their shopping, so instead of them having to put something back, I offered to pay the balance, it was only £2 or so. Thinking about it now, they didn't actually seem that grateful lol.

EmDools

I remember something similar happening to me when I was a poor student (16) and was going home for the school holidays. I had been travelling 5 hours already with a huge rucksack in tow and was on the last leg of the journey. I tried to buy a ticket for the bus and found I didn't quite have enough money and the bus driver was refusing to let me on. Some kind man asked the bus driver how much did I need which the bus driver replied "2p". The driver had several scowls from the other passengers! I was very grateful for that guy giving him the 2p as I would of been scouring the streets for spare change on the floor.

If I was in a foreign country and I could see she was in trouble I would help.

Thank you kind man who helped me! Who ever you are!

17ND

I would trust my instincts and hope she wasn't scamming, but I live on the ethos that you should treat people how you want to be treated, and I hope someone would help me out someday if I were in the same situation.

Karma...

freelancemermaid

i was in this situation recently, a woman had obviously genuinely bought the wrong ticket and the ticket collector gave her a hard time. i was ready to pay some of the difference for her, i didn't have it all, but the collector relented and believed her after a while.

i was ready to give what i could - if we can't help out our fellow humans, what is the point of being here?