Please tell me if you think I have been horrendously callous, this happened yesterday evening and I still feel absolutely awful about it.
I was walking down a short alley between the station and a main road, it was starting to get dark and I was by myself. I was approached by a young (under 30) woman who was crying and had a small scab on the bridge of her nose, and was reasonably dressed but had no shoes. She approached me from the main road and cried "can you help me, I've been in an accident, I haven't even got any shoes (points to feet), I'm not homeless or anything, I just need some money to get the bus home." She was reasonably well-spoken, if that makes any difference.
Now, she had some coins in her left hand which I reckon were enough to cover her bus fare. She did have a very small injury to the face but it was dark and scabbed over and looked days old. She was wearing tights which weren't laddered or damaged in any way, which I assume they would be if she had been in an accident which had caused her to lose both her shoes. She was walking away from the main road where there were lots of people who would have been able to help her and may have witnessed the accident.
I stopped, looked at her for a few seconds, said 'sorry' and strode away. I'm torn between thinking this is a fairly standard begging (or worse) tactic and I'd have been an idiot to have shown her any weakness. But what if she'd genuinely been hurt, had concussion, was confused and wandering aimlessly looking for someone to help her? Should I have at least called her an ambulance? I'm ashamed to admit that I was worried that she or an accomplice would mug me if I got out my phone, but isn't that an awful thing to think? I'm usually very helpful to strangers but I just didn't feel comfortable helping this woman.
Was I being unreasonable? If you want some geographical context, this was in SE London. I also don't give to beggars (and there are many here) - I prefer to give to charities which will tackle homelessness or poverty. I'd rather this didn't turn into a debate about whether I should have given her money even if she had been a beggar, but I know this is AIBU...