I am going to add this up to Philipp’s litany concerning the increasing number of panhandlers in the city of Vienna.
The first time I was here and that was in 2000 beggars were not that conspicuous, especially in the inner district, or even in the trains.
There are reports that these people are part of the syndicate originating in Eastern Europe. Everyone is pointing his/her fingers to Romania, where its citizens can stay up until three months without any visa.
This practice of sending fake beggars to the streets is the same tactic that is used in the Philippines and some other parts of Asia.
If you happen to use the train U4 before or after noon the chance of seeing panhandlers is very common. I don’t have anything against them. Though honestly, I earnestly do mind why they hell they continuously exist everywhere in the world.
Fo some people encountering them is like an omen. They curse these poor people to death until they understand that they are not at all wanted there.

For the last two weeks I am sort of bothered watching a young veiled dark-eyed woman carrying a small sleeping child on her shoulder and then asking the passengers to give her money in a singsong voice. Today there was a short “invalid” man with his cane who sure looks to be fake zigzagging his way anchoring the people’s attention much to their chagrin. The usual reply is just a plain no or shaking of the head. One of the passengers, a woman in his 40s with a copper red dyed hair, went ballistic upon catching the sight of him.
“In öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel ist es verboten, zu betteln! (It is forbidden to beg in public transportation)” She declared sending the other passenger behind her in panic. She was not totally satisfied that she repeated her sentence three to four times, this time her voice much louder, much higher.
“Can you please stop? I think he got it already…” The woman in her back, in her calm but firm voice, complained. It resulted to a much more heated debate about church and all that crap that it became their own fight. It was a pity that a heavy slang was a barrier for me to fully understand their differing opinions.
Later on I heard that the angry woman’s loud voice made her feel uneasy as if she were in a dirty market, confiding to her seatmate.
This is Vienna in 2006.
To tell you the truth I do give them money unless the beggars pretend that they are invalid or posing as mother and son. Not only they have able bodies to do anything but also they let themselves manipulate by others. I prefer the singing/entertaining beggars who play accordion, or even belt out the Beatles’ “Yesterday” in the hallways of the train stations. I don’t really mind that.
Once I was really drawn to this supposed to be father and son tandem of musician beggars. The boy, perhaps, 11, was playing “Gloomy Sunday” using his violin. This was two years ago at the Schwedenplatz Station. The fake father was really proud of the boy and was wooing the passengers and bystanders to watch his “son”.
And there are aggressive panhandlers who force you and insist that you should pity them and so they have the right to ask for your money. Or worse, they even demand you to withdraw money for them. If you don’t agree or say a clear no, they curse you in their mother tongue.
I guess, it is the way the world turns.
What is that dictum?
“You give man a fish and he will be happy for a day. You give him a fishing hook and he will thank you forever.”