The Joyful Beggar
	My heart was touched.  On a recent bus ride to a music festivel (another story), I was sitting on the bus floor near the rear door.  There were no seats left.  At every stop, the rear door would open to let passengers get on or get off the bus. Also, there were immediately a dozen or so beggars and people selling food at the door.  Dozens, or what felt like hundreds, of hands surged past me, undulating in and out of the bus on an unpredictable basis. At one stop, there was a very old blind man begging, in addition to the 6 or so boys called 'garibous'. The old man was standing about 5 away from the bus chanting prayers in Arabic, I imagine he couldn't easily tell just where the bus was, and he didn't want to get too close.  On the other hand, the garibous were practically in the bus, hands frantically waving for money or food or ... After a few minutes, the level of activity calmed down somewhat. A man inside and at the back of the bus walked as close as he could to the back door. He could not actually reach the door because of multiple people sitting on the floor, like me.  He reached out with a coin, and motioned that the old man should get the money.  One of the young garibous grabbed the coin, and with a joyful smile on his face and in his eyes, this boy of about 8 years old, dressed litterally in rags, turned around and gently put the coin to the hand of the old man.  After this deed, the garibou again turned a faced the bus, with even a bigger smile than before, pointed in the general direction of the donor. I almost cried.