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Practical advice: Should I give money to a beggar?
M. wrote: Should I give money to a beggar who asks me every day at the same traffic light on my way to work? I understand that Stoically we are citizens of the cosmos and we must help each other; but when it comes to temperance, as a cardinal virtue, does it mean that I should give him some coins one day, and the next I should not? People I have talked to have told me that they are lazy, that they do not look for a job on their own. Someone said (I’m not sure if it was Lao Tzu): “If you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” What should a Stoic do?
Well, the first thing a Stoic would do is not to assume that the person in question is lazy or doesn’t want a job. Epictetus reminds us that it is dangerous and uncalled for to jump to conclusions about other people’s intentions:
“Someone bathes in haste; don’t say he bathes badly, but in haste. Someone drinks a lot of wine; don’t say he drinks badly, but a lot. Until you know their reasons, how do you know that their actions are vicious?” (Enchiridion 45)
There are all sorts of reasons why people may end up homeless, jobless, or poor (or all of the above), and it isn’t up to us to pass judgment, especially given that such judgments are often based on nothing more than prejudice.
