Begging for a Cigarette (person)

Walking in to work this morning, I was approached by a 'Street Person' (non gender-specific, slightly PC term for 'bum') asking if I has a "...spare cigarette". At this precise moment, I was assailed with a multitude of thoughts and feelings. So much so that I simply looked at him and walked on. Normally I would have made a comment, rude, polite, or other - just to acknowledge, but I suddenly had such an onrush of thoughts that I just moved on blankly. The following are some of what hit me at that precise moment:

• What is it that makes me different from this man?
• What did he do wrong that I must have got right?
• What is stopping me from sliding into that same situation?
• What would it take to get out of that situation?
• Where does he sleep at night when I am tucked up in my $3,000 bed?
• What does he eat when I am going to cafes and ordering in?
• What is so important about having a cigarette when you have other things to concern yourself over?
• Why not prioritise your needs - food, shelter, then a job before worrying about satisfying your nicotine addiction?
• Would I, could I, should I help this person or others like him?
• What would it take to get him out of this rut?
• Would it be appreciated and used as intended if I did?
• Should I simply pretend I didn't see him and walk on?
• How do they feel begging for butts or scrounging in rubbish bins?
• Do they look back on a past life of happier times, or is this all they know?
• What does this man see when he looks at me?
• Do I look wealthy?
• Do I look like a push-over who is sympathetic to the plight of beggars?
• Do I look like a smoker?
• Did I offend by not answering?

The thing is, I will mull over this for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will have forgotten it completely, but that guy will still be out there somewhere, picking up butts out of the gutter, sleeping on park benches or in a tunnel somewhere.

Everyone is here for a reason, I wonder what his is. Perhaps just to spark this pang of guilt in me. But what do I feel guilty about? That I am better off that him? That I didn't/won't/can't help him? Or that I am part of a society that has no time or tolerance for the downtrodden and weak?