So I was having a not terribly good lunch round the corner from my hotel near the Place Saint-Michel in Paris.
This old lady caught my eye, not least because my table was at the edge of the brasserie, which had an open facade, and she paused - or so I thought - on reaching an iron bollard a few yards along the rue Saint-André des Arts.
I honestly thought at first that she was ill and had stopped to regain strength, gasp for breath or seek assistance.
What should I do? People walked or cycled by without a second thought. Just as I was about to walk over and see if she needed help, she stuck out the cardboard coffee cup she had in her right hand and waited for passers-by to put money into it.
I still wondered, given the stoop and lack of movement, if she was really all right. But then her actions developed into a routine. Hand held out, head bowed, occasionally wiping what I now assume to have been imaginary tears from her eyes. And a look every now and again into the cup after which she would empty most of the contents into a deep pocket of her full length coat before holding it out again.
She was there during my entrée, and was still there 20 minutes after I had finished my meal, paid and wandered up and down the street.
There you are. No great mystery, really. Just a little old lady of Paris going about her daily business, with a few tricks of her trade just as others have theirs.
You are all thinking: "Did you chip in?"
Yes, the old softie in me prevailed. Having decided she was a complete fraud, I then thought she was quite a clever one and might even have a genuine hard luck tale to tell (not that she seemed willing to tell it when benefactors tried to talk; conversation gets in the way of business).
So she got a euro or two, which she acknowledged with a gentle nod. And I felt a little better about things, but was still left wondering about the little old lady of the rue Saint-André des Arts.
* An account of this small episode in my three-day stay in Paris, and another photograph, can be seen in my East West column published in today's edition of The National, Abu Dhabi. More photos at Flickr.
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