Professional beggars at the Cathedral

Yes, I had heard rumors about the beggars of the Cathedral. Rumors about one of them being picked-up by her husband in a Mercedes after her "working day" was over, rumors about being a whole organized mafia of professional beggars... but I thought it was probably exagerations, even if I had seen one of them who always shakes like she's so sick, stopping shaking after deciding it was lunchtime: she just stood up and walked away - no shaking at all. But you know, most beggars do these kind of tricks to look more miserable, kind of "poor people's marketing".

But today, I was there. I had a tour with the Husain family from Bangladesh. We arrived at the Cathedral as on Sunday guides are not allowed to give tours inside I gave them some basic explanations and they entered by themselves. While I was waiting a saw that lady arrive. She walked with the decided energy of someone arriving at work. Her hair was carefully made into a nice pony-tail, she wore a cute jacket, a trendy skirt with new stockings and cute high-heel boots. You'd have said she was heading for her office. But not at all.

I thought her face rang a bell, and sure enough she took an old jacket from a bag and put it on over her nice one, then sat down and cover her legs (skirt, stockings and boots) with a dirty coat, then she took a black shawl from her bag and covered her clean hair with it. Voilà! She had transformed in a beggar in less than two minutes! She took a plastic plate and put it to her side, she was ready to work!

I thought I had to share that. If you want to check it yourself, it was only ten minutes to 9am when she arrived this morning.