How SHOULD you deal with a beggar at your front door?

I HAVE spent my whole working life in an office, blissfully unaware of the number of people who arrive at our front door.

Now I’m working at home, I’ve discovered the constant stream of visitors; horse manure traders, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Amazon delivery driver, the fish van, charity recruiters, water softener sellers, meter-readers – and people asking for cash.

This morning at 8am the bell rang several times, and through the glass panels I could make out the figure of a man. The ringing had been so urgent I thought perhaps it was a neighbour in need but when I opened the door it was a stranger standing there, staring silently at me as he unfolded a small piece of paper with the handwritten message: ‘Please give me some money to eat. I have none.’

I told him I didn’t have any spare change on me and he politely departed with a cheery grin.

Although breakfast time is probably not the best moment to lobby people for money, at least it wasn’t later, in the dark.

At night the doorstep can be a threatening place, and for the elderly and those who live alone, it is particularly disturbing to be confronted with an unfamiliar visitor of any kind.

As I returned to my nice warm kitchen I felt both guilty and resentful. Guilty that I was tucking into breakfast while that stranger was in the rain begging for money, and resentful that he had invaded both my physical and head space.

Why should he be able to insinuate himself into my day in that way?

But then again, why didn’t I do the sensible thing and offer him some to thing to eat? Why didn’t I do anything helpful for him when, at the click of button, I had spent money on a dress I didn’t need just the previous night.

As a soft touch for a hard-luck story, I almost always do hand out some cash, but each time I question that action afterwards.

It might make me feel that I am a better person, but who is really helped by encouraging doorstep begging.

My conscience briefly? The guy on the step? Well, possibly. In the short term.

But in the long term, will it really be his dealer or the local off-licence who actually benefits?

Another impossible conundrum of modern life…