I have always loved doing things for good causes, like charities or maybe even just filling up a poor beggar’s coin-container with some cash. But what happened today with a Buddhist/Taoist/Japanese/Thai/whatever monk hell freaked me out. The accused in question was almost like a persistant and aggresive credit card promoter! 

Hubby and I were just hangin around book-shopping in Borders, Queensbay Mall when we were approached by a rather elderly monk draped in amber robes with huge beans.. oops, beads I meant, dangling from his neck. Not wanting to offend him, we patiently listened as he rambled on in Chinese… supposedly something about his religion?? He then pressed a card with some Chinese characters printed on it, into our palms. Even as Christians, the both of us graciously accepted it with thanks just for the sake of respect. I mean, he’s seems nice and harmless so I clearly see no point in stemming his momentum. 

Before we knew it, he brandished a machete and a cleaver at us. 

Obviously not.

He whipped out a clipboard with a list of people’s names who respectively donated RM20 and waaay above. With raised eyebrows, we gave each other a baffled look. *gosh* It was obvious that we looked stumped but he didn’t give a rat’s ass about us, instead, he kept insisting we donate as well. YOU SON OF A GUN! How are we supposed to determine if you really are a registered monk seeking for charity or just one of those BOGUS MONKS cheating the public of their hard-earned money? We then politely declined but he became more aggresive. C’mon, Jess has to do something! Left between the devil and the deep sea, I signalled to one of the staff at the corner of my eye. Thankfully, she came to our rescue and courteously told the monk off.

What was next? He stormed off in a huff and snatched back the card which he insisted we should keep, not too long ago. What a scam! Like, seriously, if all you wanted to do was to spread the truth about your religion, then go ahead… we were courteous enough to listen anyway. Just compare him to the Swedish pastor standing outside my college handing out free bibles for all. Now, that’s the ethical and proper way of doing it. 

Begone, you bogus-imitation monk! Giving a bad impression of monks around the world.