Charity, kindness, greed & perception
Aug. 2nd, 2004 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilight33Today was the charity pickup day, greatly appreciated by those of us who have stuff to give away that doesn't easily fit in the car and dread lugging toddlers back & forth to drop it off someplace ourselves.
It was a slow, undemanding ring, not the hurried jab normally done by FedEx or UPS. A quick peek through the peephole showed it was an unknown woman, looking off to the side.
Normally I never open the door to anyone unknown who isn't in some sort of uniform. When it's just me & Kieran in the house and the front door isn't visible from the street, it is Not A Wise Thing To Do in today's society.
I opened it anyway. She said she lived nearby, didn't have a lot of money, and noticed I had a suitcase in the charity pile & politely asked if she could have it. I said sure, cautioning that one of the outer pocket zippers was broken. She replied that was fine, that she & her kids were going on a road trip soon and it'd be really useful. As I said bye, I remembered that there was an ancient (older than me) carry-on bag tucked inside the suitcase and mentioned that to her & her eyes lit up and she said 'Great! Thanks again!'
I have no way of knowing for sure if she was lying, but by the sound of her tranny as she & her beat-up Civic left I kind of doubt it.
Then as I was putting Kieran down for a nap, there was a
The knock made me edgy. It wasn't done with the knuckles, but the side of the fist in a heavy THUD THUD that sounded demanding. I tucked Kieran in & tiptoed over to the peephole... nobody was there. I walked over to our room and looked out the open window, nobody was in the driveway or parked along the street but I could hear two men arguing.
I went back to the door & opened it, could tell from the sound that they were arguing on the other side of the street & walked across the front lawn to peek through the hedge. I could see them standing next to an SUV making a lot of hand gestures but couldn't understand what they were saying. I went back inside.
Ten minutes later I went back outside, walked across the lawn & they and the SUV were gone. I went over to the pile of stuff, and the two wooden TV/game trays were gone.
Granted I hadn't checked it after the woman with the suitcase left, but somehow I doubt she took more than she asked for.
I could be wrong and it was just coincidence, but my first thought after the first incident was 'cool, I'm glad to know it's going to good use' and the second was 'greedy bastards, stealing from charity' even though the end result was the same.
It was a slow, undemanding ring, not the hurried jab normally done by FedEx or UPS. A quick peek through the peephole showed it was an unknown woman, looking off to the side.
Normally I never open the door to anyone unknown who isn't in some sort of uniform. When it's just me & Kieran in the house and the front door isn't visible from the street, it is Not A Wise Thing To Do in today's society.
I opened it anyway. She said she lived nearby, didn't have a lot of money, and noticed I had a suitcase in the charity pile & politely asked if she could have it. I said sure, cautioning that one of the outer pocket zippers was broken. She replied that was fine, that she & her kids were going on a road trip soon and it'd be really useful. As I said bye, I remembered that there was an ancient (older than me) carry-on bag tucked inside the suitcase and mentioned that to her & her eyes lit up and she said 'Great! Thanks again!'
I have no way of knowing for sure if she was lying, but by the sound of her tranny as she & her beat-up Civic left I kind of doubt it.
Then as I was putting Kieran down for a nap, there was a
The knock made me edgy. It wasn't done with the knuckles, but the side of the fist in a heavy THUD THUD that sounded demanding. I tucked Kieran in & tiptoed over to the peephole... nobody was there. I walked over to our room and looked out the open window, nobody was in the driveway or parked along the street but I could hear two men arguing.
I went back to the door & opened it, could tell from the sound that they were arguing on the other side of the street & walked across the front lawn to peek through the hedge. I could see them standing next to an SUV making a lot of hand gestures but couldn't understand what they were saying. I went back inside.
Ten minutes later I went back outside, walked across the lawn & they and the SUV were gone. I went over to the pile of stuff, and the two wooden TV/game trays were gone.
Granted I hadn't checked it after the woman with the suitcase left, but somehow I doubt she took more than she asked for.
I could be wrong and it was just coincidence, but my first thought after the first incident was 'cool, I'm glad to know it's going to good use' and the second was 'greedy bastards, stealing from charity' even though the end result was the same.
