Looking for a gypsy

In Florence on Saturday, I bought a pastry while walking. I usually will buy a pastry or pizza slice or panini en route; it's cheap, good, and allows more time to wander. Occasionally I get something that isn't my cup of tea and this was one of those times. But it was large and fresh and probably to many people's likings, and I hate wasting food, so I went looking for a gypsy to give it to, especially a woman. If I give to someone on the street, it's usually a woman because life on the streets is harder for them. But of all the times I have seen them, dropped a coin in their cup, or stepped around them, I did not see any this time.

Eventually I saw a man looking through a garbage bin by the Duomo and I offered it to him, but he said no. Guess he had his mind set on something else.

When I got off the train at Bologna, a guy approached me on the platform and asked if I had 50 cents to give him for food. I have seen someone like him in New York recently, and I don't know what to make of it - young, semi-attractive, not poorly-dressed, but somehow believable by their eyes and stance and request. The guy in New York was sitting on the sidewalk and reading a book, which was unexpected. But these are hard times and the line can be thin between student loan programs or family help and suddenly not having.

I thought, well, if he indeed wants the money for food, as he specified, I have some food. So I reached into my totebag and gave him the pastry.

I watched him walk down the platform and approach someone else. All of a sudden, I realized I had not checked the paper bag before giving it to him. At night, after a long day, and without looking, I could have just as easily given him another bag in there, of some things I had purchased, things I wanted to keep.

I had two choices and went with the kookier one. Fortunately, he was walking back up the platform now. "Excuse me, do you mind if I check to see that I gave you the right bag?" Now I felt like the crazy person. He seemed neutral about it, and handed it to me. Plastic bag, check, inside paper bag, check, pastry; okay, it's the right one.

I handed it back to him and thanked him.