Even privileged people adopt begging when the payoff outweighs conventional work

Evidence

Sherlock Holmes was once called upon to locate a well-to-do English businessman who had mysteriously disappeared. In doing so, he also discovered the nature of the gentleman’s business: begging. Having once tried it for a short period in order to collect material for a story, he had found it so rewarding that he was evermore loath to set his hand to more demanding and less lucrative occupations. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1209

Categorization

• XREF: Illustrates the con-game / identity-appropriation strand of urban anonymity research; connects to the earlier con-man discussion (Maurer) and appearance-versus-spatial-order identification.