charitable nuns

Well, I had a pretty interesting experience the other day. I was eating lunch in City Hall park, which is just across the street from where my classes are and very close to the Brooklyn Bridge (very cool, by the way). I was chatting with another girl in the program when a nun came up to us and said something like "St. Joseph's orphanage" and stood there with a small basket of money. She just stood there and looked at my friend and said, "I can't hear you." She waited for a minute more and when my friend didn't respond she said again, "I can't hear you!" Finally my friend said, "Good afternoon." At that, the nun walked away muttering something and was obviously disgusted. To this friend, who is from Kenya, it wasn't a very favorable impression of Americans.
As it happened, there was a man sitting near us on an adjoining park bench and said, "Don't worry about her. I see her around here all of the time. She even came in to a restaurant where I was eating and went up to each table people we seated at, and asked them for money. When she came to me, I just stared at her and didn't say a word. She left because she knew I caught on to her."
As if that wasn't interesting enough, a younger man came up to us and said, "I heard you talking about the nun. She's a fake, right? I was here once and asked where the orphanage is located. It doesn't exist--I tried to look it up."
So, apparently the New Yorkers know this woman is a complete fake, but a lot of people fall into her trap because there are a lot of tourists in the area.
She goes up to everyone she sees and made quite a bit during the short time I was there. She must make a killing. What a charitable "nun."
By the way, I haven't seen any rats yet. :)