'So Who's Poor, Him or Me?'

This is not a first-hand experience but one shared by my mother-in-law. But it's something that made me think about how we, the middle-class folks, may be the new 'poor.'

It happened outside a temple. When she came out of the temple she saw some 'poor' people waiting for alms. So, out of goodwill, she gave 10 bucks to one of them, a man in ragged clothes. Little was she prepared for what happened next. The man threw the money back at her and said, "You're giving me 10 bucks? I'll give you 100!" She was, not-surprisingly, shocked and hurt.

After she narrated this incident, she innocently asked, "So who's poor, him or me?" That's something to think about.