I hope no African action person listened to this show, cause the story about that holiday begger is complete and proven business-plan.
The best pan handler I ever saw was a (white) woman on the BART trains (that is the Bay Area Rapid Transit) who used to go on with a story about how she needed to go to the emergency room and did not have here welfare card and needed $50. I saw people give her $5 or $10 at a shot. The second time I saw her, she approached me and started the story. I responded out loud "You had the same exact problem last week on this train" She quickly walked away.
I had a similar story only with a twist:
A guy walk in the street near the bus station and says he is an ex prisoner and he needs to buy a ticket to get to his parole officer, only that he forgot his wallet, and he must leave soon or he is thrown back to prison. I saw him pulling the exact same story several times, and this one time he approached me with this story asking for money, I told him this is strange, I think I saw you before telling the same story. But in my case, the guy didn't walked away, he put his hand in his jacket's pocket and pointing it toward me, closing in on me, and angrily ranting "I have pride, are you calling me a liar !". He wasn't asking for money anymore, but I had to pay him to leave.