A professional beggar is a very common figure in the world. You can see him everywhere. He is found in the streets of town, sitting on the pavements, running after private cars and signing in the houses and the railway trains. He leads a peculiar life. He lives to beg He gets up early in the morning and dresses himself in his professional garments. Then he goes to his beat. Every professional beggar has his beat.
No other beggar dares beg in those areas. He goes from door to door and shop to shop.
He moves here and there and tries all tricks to get money from the people’s pocket. At night he retires. Every professional beggar has a secret horde. He spends the night with them. If he has a family to support, he returns home. The modern times are very hard for him. The people are growing less religious day by day and moreover they know that a beggar is an idler.
A Professional beggar’s dress is the most remarkable thing about him. It is dirty and in tatters. Sometimes it is a piece of art. Pieces of variously colored rags are patched together. It forms a multi-colored robe. He changes dress to deceive the people and gets alms from one man twice or thrice. Various parts of his dress belong to different persons. He wears one man’s pajama, another man’s coat, and another man’s cap and still another man’ shoes. He never bothers about bath or cleanliness. He is lost in himself.
His clothes are full of lice. His hair is dirty and matted. When he begs for alms, his dirty, broken, yellow teeth are visible. Wandering or sitting from morning to evening demand a great power of endurance. So a professional beggar is usually addicted to drugs. He manages to have some sort of disfigurement. Either he has pock-marked, twisted face, or a crippled limb, or a crooked stoop. Blindness is a blessing for a professional beggar. This puts him in a favorable position.