I actually got stranded in Philly years ago. My card wasn't working and was short a few bucks for the Chinatown bus. All these stories of a great gold rush in panhandling, I figured this would be easy, just take just a few minutes.

Man, both street bums and regular people were all about exposing my stupid scam job. It was real! I actually needed it, and it took me a dollar an hour there by the greyhound station asking the asshole people of Philadelphia for some help. Just for like 5 bucks. It actually got a little dangerous because I could tell troublemakers were noticing that I had a few dollars on me, not even enough for a bus ticket, but who knows how that would have gone if I didn't make it on that last bus.

So real situations do exist, but they are very few and far between. It wasn't out of desperation or anything, just seemed pointless to make someone drive all the way to Philly to pick me up, when I just needed a few dollars to take the bus. Street bums were like "Man, what you workin here?" Like I had some complicated gig going. Not really! Just needed a bus ticket! People offered to sell me drugs, because they saw I was "working", people offered to pay me for sex, because they saw someone in need. It was a real wild couple of hours.