Generosity

Some people are fond of hoarding their money and never spending it. It is well to be thrifty, but it is also well to give away money where it is needed-in fact, that is part of the object of saving up your money.

In being charitable, be careful that you do not fall into the mistake of false charity. That is to say, it is very easy and comforting to you to give a penny to a beggar in the street, but you ought not to do it. That beggar in ninety-nine times out of a hundred is an arrant old fraud, and by giving your penny you are encouraging him and others to go on with that trade. There may be, probably are, hundreds of really poor and miserable people hiding away, whom you never see and to whom that penny would be a godsend. The charity organizations know where they are, and who they are, and if you give your penny to them they will put it into the right hands for you.

You need not be rich to be charitable. Many of the knights were poor men. At one time some of them wore, as their crest, two knights riding on one horse, which meant they were too poor to afford a horse apiece.

Author

Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell (Chief Scout, London, UK)

Date of Creation

1908

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