The pschology of a bum

Last night I walked into a Tim Horton's and a young looking bum decided to open the door for me. At first I felt aggravated by this because it felt as if I was obliged to give him some money. That's one way to look at it. But there is a generous side of me that actually appreciates that this bum is trying to put some effort toward getting some change. That being said, I'm sure he wasn't dumb and that he understood the particular social obligation of compensating someone for an exchanged service. Very interesting.

But as I was using the mens room I was curious as to how this bum would react if I called him out on his little routine. I decided to find out. So on my way out of Timmies, this bum opened the door for me once more. Now all this time I pulled out a twoonie from my pocket and had it in my hand. My thinking was if this bum gives me a good response to my question I'll give him the twoonie. If he acts like a jerk then I won't.

So as I walked through the door, I looked him right in the eye and in a very evil tone said, 'You know I can open a door myself, right?'. He kind of gave me an expression of indiference and looked the other way. Which is actually rather fair. He also avoided making further eye contact with me and looked for his next customer.

But I stood there and made things a bit awkward. Then I walked closer to him and he looked over. Then to my surprise, this bum probably had the best response I think anyone could have in that type of situation while being confronted. He looked at me and held his hand out and said 'respect'.

And that's when I gave him his twoonie.