Anecdotally, about ten years ago, when walking down a street once, a poor girl started following me around. I reached into my pocket and gave her a handful of w

Anecdotally, about ten years ago, when walking down a street once, a poor girl started following me around. I reached into my pocket and gave her a handful of whatever loose change I had lying around in there. She continued to badger me for the next 10min, even while I tried crossing the street multiple times to get her off my trail. I once got stopped by a couple that gave me a story about being left away from home and no means to get back etc... I gave them Rs.50 and they kind of stared at me with bewilderment like "that's all you're giving me" (And keep in mind that I'm not a white guy standing out in the crowd - I look just like every other Indian on the street :) ) Small things like this make me slightly more reluctant to give money to people on the street. I prefer to donate via charities that I help out with instead.