A good Samaritan or an easy mark?

Last night as I was getting gas, a man drove up to me and told me that he and his wife were from Chicago, they'd just been made homeless by a fire, they were on their way to a church in Danville, and he needed $20.  I gave it to him.  After he left, I found myself thinking I'd probably been conned, but while I was talking to him it felt like it was the right thing to do.  I don't normally give money to people who are panhandling, and I never give them that much if I do.  I really can't say why I did it.  I don't expect to ever find out if he was really in need or just someone who knew how to push buttons I didn't really know I had.

Perhaps there is a lesson I should be taking from the incident, but I'm not sure what it is.

Ideas: Prostitution

What follows are some thoughts that have been incubating in my subconscious for a few months.  I'm not sure that I'm prepared to express them profoundly or even clearly, but I need to try to say something.  It's been unusually hard for me to figure out how to approach writing this, but I'm going to take a swing at it now.

( some long ramblings on the ethics of prostitution )