One summer I was taking summer classes at Mines and I rode the bus to school four days a week. Strange people congregate on the bus sometimes, but mostly it’s just groggy people trying to pass the time on the way to work / school. I was one such person.

I woke up one morning as we reached one of the bus stops. A tall, scraggly man got on the bus, smelling rather strongly. Backpack in tow and wearing a coat despite the weather combined with his demeanor and the metal cup he was holding out in front of him, I gathered that he was panhandling. I reached into my pocket and found some change, and proceeded to drop it into his cup, only to find that he was not, in fact, asking for change, but rather just trying to drink his coffee. Plop plop.