And here it's the reality - letter of the week 10

I can be mean sometimes. Especially when not knowing the difference between a person in need and a "business beggar". It's when you find your peace and get all the suddenly you get interrupted by one of this kind of people who are begging all day long for different things: there are ones who say they need money for food, others to raise their children, and others to buy medicine. The one that came towards me was one from the last category, the one saying (not to write pretending) she needs money for medicine. It was a woman, 68 years old, probably single, with kids out of the country, all forgotten about. Where are all this practically disappearing and why? Why do they just leave like that and never return? How they can live with it? What we can do to help this kind of people who worked their asses all life to get a miserable retirement pension?
I was mean because I thought she needs money for drinking something, but I soon realised that she's not pretending. At least I hope so. That's the thing: I cannot tell for sure. When can we know for sure when there's really need and where is a business out of this?