Undeserved Generosity

In his wealthy days, he looked down on homeless people and disgusted by their stench, he cried out, " Take a warm bath! " He kept on walking fixing his black hat tossed upward by a capricious, wild wind. He dressed well and passerby admired him, he turned many ladies heads with his stylish Armani dark suit and Gucci dark sunglasses. but older guys stared at him with much envy: he was in his early sixties, but looked younger. A hungry man sensing his greed shouted, " Sir, do you have a dollar to buy me coffee? " " Filthy bum, you are too lazy to get a job! " He replied with much indignation in his voice. " I was like you wearing the best suits money could buy, then I lost my job on Wall Street! I am forced to beg...where is human kindness? " He spoke those words with great bitterness. He wasn't moved by what he had heard and muttered, " They are all the same, freeloaders fooling idiots who give them dollars and they in turn buy cigarettes and alcohol; who is the clever one? Months passed and the homeless guy still begged, some gave him quarters and dollars, others kept on walking; he didn't see that stylish gentleman who despised his condition and insulted him with nasty looks and unkind words, where had he gone? He had to ask somebody. " I think I saw him today on Lexington Avenue." A passerby shouted running to the subway. The teen told him he lost all he had when the Stock Market dropped to its lowest in August, another Black Tuesday,* then he pointed where he was laying, " He's on next block in a cardboard box! " The homeless man deeply wondered. He got up, went to take a shower and put on a suit somebody gave to him along with black shades; He looked very rich, everyone was impressed by his attire, and best of all, he smelled good: he was alive. " Good morning, Sir, can I offer you anything, coffee and a hot hero *? " He asked him by hiding his identity. " Yes, please...I haven't eaten in days! " Nobody is showing mercy, they look away if I were a sewer rat looking for food on this sidewalk of cuisine smell." " Wait, I will right back with your food! He ran across the busy avenue and returned with a bag full of sweet cakes and a pastrami hero; the coffee steamed in the chilly afternoon, it seemed a Manhattan' street giving off puffs of stream from under the sewers during Fall and winter. " Thank you for your kindness, kind man! " The once-rich-man said to the stranger, he seemed sorry as if his greedy heart had had found underserved generosity which he himself had denied...remembering how desperate that man was when he asked for money to get coffee and stay warm. * A Hero is a New York or New Jersey Hero Sandwich * Black Tuesday happened on October 29, 1929