A couple of years back I was travelling on the London Underground during rush hour. I was changing at a very busy station and heading down the stairs to the next platform when I spotted at the bottom a guy begging.
As I got closer I realised he was horribly horribly disfigured by I assume a fire, it was so bad I found it very hard to look at him. He also had no hands just some shrivelled stumps on the end of his arms. He had slung over them a jacket, which he used to collect change.
In quite a soft sounding voice he was asking people for for spare change as they went past but everyone just ignored him, what choked me up was that he apologized for asking to everyone who ignored his request for spare change.
I stood there for a while watching I was so struck by how fucked up the situation added to the fact I never saw a single person give him money, I felt like crying for the guy. Eventually I snapped out of it and went up to him and literally emptied the contents of my wallet into his jacket. He was so grateful that he kept thanking me over and over in this really sweet soft voice, which seemed so strange coming from such an alien face.
I got on my train and carried on my life secretly wishing that I never ended up like that and feeling immense sadness for that poor guys plight.
