the liberation of/f/rom greed
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Stories of Warschauer Bridge:
The Time Machine.
— a short story —
One afternoon early 2014's spring i passed by Warschauer Bridge on my way to the subway.
Right in the middle of that pathway a hippie couple was sitting, begging for money. I checked their cardboard sign and couldn't believe it:
›Need money to repair my time machine
to travel back to the 70's.‹
That made me laugh so badly – this was such a good one!
So i turned around, still laughing, and spoke to them with the most serious voice i was capable of at that moment: »You guys really need help!« I opened up my wallet and it was full of blood headed them over a five euro bill, before continuing my way.
A few seconds later strange feelings rose inside. So i stopped in the middle of the bridge, checked what was going on, what possibly could have ben wrong with giving five euros to some guys with humor.
Then I realized, what i just did:
I gave them those five euros only out of greed. I wanted to keep the rest of the money for myself. This insight disgusted me, so i made an instant u-turn and headed back to them: »Excuse me, can i increase my contribution to your repair costs?«
I gave them a 20 euro bill and asked to return those 5 euros from before.
Yes, that felt better.
They were obviously surprised and happy. We started to talk a bit about humor, actions, reactions, people, time, time machines and the 70's.
The conversation grew so i sat down next to them, and we continued to talk and observed the passing people.
»Do you guys want some pizza?« Sure they did. So we finished the rest of my pizza together.
After a while it felt, as if my part here was done, so i got up, we waved eachother ›byebye‹ and i left the scene.
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