"I won't lie to you, I need a drink."

Tyler Cowen, over at Marginal Revolution, provides this take on panhandling. Perhaps the most interesting technique I've seen used is the one a client of mine employed when I gave him a hat that had a Special Olympics design on it. He wore the hat, brought along his cane and stood flying a sign with misspellings on it that said simply: "Plese help, hungrie." Over the next few days, he cleaned up and used the money to fill a script for his diabetes medicine and purchase a jar of very expensive testing strips for his monitor, eat like a human again and then was able to spend a few days in a motel. His spree ended when the hat was stolen while he was catching a few zees on a bench downtown. Understand that I am not condoning or approving of the technique here but frankly, you can't blame the man for looking for findind an angle to improve his lot in life; you know, American ingenuity and all.....

Tips for panhandlers, from panhandlers

Currently, the direct, humorous approach is in vogue. That's why in many cities today you'll hear some version of: "I won't lie to you, I need a drink." Panhandlers also report that asking for specific amounts of money lends credibility to pitches. "I need 43 more cents to get a cup of coffee," a panhandler will declare; some people will give exactly that much, while others will simply hand over a buck.

Oddly, the tips are offered on-line:

If it seems unlikely that a homeless person would surf the Web for advice on how to panhandle, that's exactly the point: many aren't homeless and are lying about their circumstances.

(I suspect Paul Hsieh is underestimating the intelligence of many of those expeeriencing homelessness. I know a good deal of folks who are homeless but who are definitely "surf-savvy." Whether they use the net to find info on panhandling is debatable only because most of the folks on the street I know don't panhandle as a rule)

And what's the rate of return?:

Anecdotal surveys by journalists and police, and even testimony by panhandlers themselves, suggest that begging can yield anywhere from $20 to $100 a day—though police in Coos Bay, Oregon, found that local panhandlers were taking in as much as $300 a day in a Wal-Mart parking lot. “A panhandler could make thirty to forty thousand dollars a year, tax-free money,” Baker says.