Professional begging can outcompete legitimate work in earning power
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
Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims
- CANDY: Deliciously counterintuitive vignette — a rich businessman becomes a professional beggar because it pays better — great dinner-conversation fodder.
- XREF: Resonates with the reader’s theme of urban identity games: appearance (spatial/status cues) completely fails to identify who this man actually is.