The panhandler's handbook

By Omar the Beggar

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890832765
• ISBN13: 9780890832769
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: Kensington Pub. Corp
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

If you thought they were faking, maybe you were right ...

OK, now right here is a nasty little book on how to set up panhandling and other scams. It starts with a chapter on how to make $100 a week and ends at $5000 a week in chapter 12, usually capitalizing on one's own physical features, talents, or particular situation. Omar the Beggar, who runs the panhandling workshops, helps one guy with a stutter dress up with bandages on his head, holding a sign asking people to help pay for the rest of the operation. (Omar does advise against using a seeing eye dog or a white cane to simulate disability.) For people with too much conscience, he gets them leading impromptu parades for tips or looking in hotel lounge sofas for spare change and wallets to return for rewards. Omar has a tough-love tone toward his panhandling workshop clients and manages to deliver all the stories with a straight face. Do not miss Mike's story on page 106. Mike "was the sole support for his sister, a midget, who was seven months pregnant, unmarried and she refused to abort." Mike can chin himself 100 times and stand on his hands for an hour, so he goes to a high-rise and dangles from a 4th story ledge. His accomplice Mario runs through the crowd with a bullhorn imploring people to give money so his "brother" can pay the rent and avoid suicide. At 10 such stunts weekly in a big city, Omar claims the two guys make $700 a week (when written in 1977). Need I say that this gritty little tome is for entertainment purposes only?? However, it is amusing and rather addictive. Just remember, most beggars are no more scammers than most welfare mothers are J.K. Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter series). Just because some people manage to do it, doesn't make it likely.