To Help Or Ignore

Yesterday I left my wallet at the office during lunch and had to borrow money to buy my food.  I even had to borrow a few dollars to buy a Red Mango yoghurt.  The only thing I managed to bring was my coin purse which really has little coins left.

On my way back, I noticed an old lady at the covered walkway begging for help.  Almost every person that passes by was ignoring her.  I also did.  But a few steps away, I walked back.  Something about the old lady pulled at my heart strings.  I normally avoid giving money to those who asked on the street.  I guess it's something you get used to especially in the Philippines where they say the beggars are sometimes part of a syndicate.  But the old lady, on my return, was already crying.  She must be feeling miserable that there are so many people that sees her and yet no one was willing to provide a helping hand.

I literally only have a few dollars left of what was in my coin purse.  But I figured it's better to at least give something to the old lady than for her to think no one give a damn.

Have people nowadays become too numb and uncaring that we now have the tendency to ignore instead of helping?

Granted that it is possible some actually are just being lazy and instead of looking for a job would rather beg (in the case of the old lady, I doubt that).  But how would we know?  Should we stop helping in the off chance that the person may not be truthful?  But what if in our cautiousness we end up hurting the really needy people?  Does one overweigh the other?  To be honest, I don't know the answer to this.  All I know is that we have to act based on what our conscience tells us.