'Hungry' woman asks stranger for $5, then goes to buy lottery tickets: 'She's really not embarrassed'

The New Paper
Oct 20, 2023

After handing an elderly woman $5 because she said she was hungry, a man was shocked to find her making a beeline to buy lottery tickets moments later.

Posting anonymously on the Complaint Singapore Facebook page on Thursday (Oct 19), the man shared about his encounter with the woman.

He wrote that the woman, whom he said “hangs around” at various places “begging for donations”, approached him near Joo Chiat Complex. 

"She asked me to help give her $5; she claimed she was hungry," he said, adding that he gave her the money.  

Moments later, however, he was surprised to see her inside a 7-Eleven “queuing up to buy lottery tickets”. 

“She's really not embarrassed or scared about cheating others of their money to gamble," he added in his post.

The post, which included two photos of the woman, attracted a flurry of comments from netizens with differing views on the matter. 

Some agreed with the man, and said it wasn’t right she was begging for food money and then buying lottery tickets instead. 

Others, though, said the woman was entitled to do whatever she wished with the donation, and that if the man chose to help her, he should do it out of kindness – regardless of what she does with the money.