A chick....
Back in the mid-'70s, when homeless people begging seemed to be much less common, my ex-wife and I were in Santa Barbara, CA, for a get-away long weekend. We were young, both working and had some extra cash. We had just come out of one of our favorite restaurants and old scruffy guy asked me if I had anything I could spare. I just walked right past him like he wasn't even there. I got about 10 feet past him and I heard him say, "But, I'm hungry."
I took a couple more steps, stopped and turned around just in time to see him heading to a dumpster to see if he could find anything to eat. I turned around and gave him a few bucks.
Back then I couldn't just walk away from somebody obviously down on their luck and hungry, especially since we'd just come out of a nice restaurant and had probably eaten more than we needed to.
But today it's different. I'm so tired of getting the usual "broken-down car, away from home, and no cash" sob stories from people whose clothes are too nice or too clean to be homeless, and especially those wearing jewelry.
Every once in awhile I get a vibe that somebody is for real, but it's rare - and I'm probably getting taken advantage of at the time when I do give them a buck or two.