Before I had children I was a lot more likely to give money to random beggars or homeless people, or buy them groceries. I’m more hard up for money at the moment and I figure any money I give some stranger is coming out of the mouths of my children, but I have many times in the past helped people out. One time though I was at a gas station filling up my car at the time a 10 year old, Hyundai that constantly broke down, and a well dressed guy in a newer 5 series BMW gave me a sob story and asked me for gas money. I just glanced from my car, to his, and back again and responded with a resounding “NO”!
I’ve told this story before.
I was filling up at a gas station, and there was a woman talking on the station’s pay phone a few feet away (this was back when there were pay phones!). She was having a sobbing conversation with someone, and saying “I just need some food and a place to sleep overnight!”. Then she hung up the phone, crying, and looked over at me.
My spidey sense was tingling, so I finished filling my tank, and then pulled my car over to the other side of the gas station and went inside to buy a bottle of water. When I came out, another customer was at the same gas pump, and the woman was back on the phone and going through the same script.
I finally got it - she was grifting the customers of the gas station. It was a variant on the “I need gas so I can get my kids back home” scam.
My after-the-fact-response, maybe I’ll actually use it someday:
‘I have three brothers and one sister below the poverty level. If I don’t help them what makes you think I’ll help you?”’
You know whom it is fun to give money to on the street though? Buskers. I have seen some pretty amazing street musicians that really earned their rumpled 1’s and quarters by playing like a mother.
I also really like the guys that sit in the skyway after Bengals games, drumming their hearts out. There are some pretty impressive 5 gallon bucket ensembles out there!
Back to the OP, I have had that story a few times. The only time someone actually accepted the offer of gas with me filling it up I put like $15 into his tank, ostensibly to go to a job interview. He was well dressed.
*** snerk ***** 
I had a similar thing happen at a gas station in Macon, GA; as I’m getting gas a cleanly dressed man walks up to me w/ a small gas can and tells me his car’s run out of gas just around the corner (gestures toward the street) w/ his family in it. He has no money, his bank card won’t work - all this information comes at me quickly and w/ no change in expression as I stare at him silently. All I have to do, he says, is put gas right in the can, he doesn’t want money! Not asking for money! All he needs is a little gas, I can give it to him as I fill up.
I told him he should ask the attendant for help if he’s in dire straits, but that I’m not going to help him. Lots of disbelief (the facial expressions come out now) that I won’t do it, that I should believe him, that it’s not a big deal for him to ask me.
When he sees I’m not buying it, he tells me I’m a bad Christian and when I don’t respond to that he steps over to the next set of pumps, going around to the opposite side but I can hear him start his spiel.
Maybe he’ll ask for cash once he gets the gas? Maybe he’ll ask for a ride to his car and rob me? Who knows, but as a woman who was alone (and on her lunch hour) I wasn’t sticking around to find out.
I had no doubt he was hustling; from the fast, set and detailed patter, to insulting my Christianity as a last-ditch shame tactic I felt this was a thing he’d done a lot.
I give money to pandhandlers occasionally, just going on gut instinct. I can afford it. Similar - a few weeks ago I was approached by a teenager who said, “I just got out of jail and I need a ride home. I lost my phone and wallet.” I gave him a ride home (about 3 miles).
I help nothing and nobody, unless I already know them well. But then again, I am an asshole.
I once got “You look familiar…are you a retired actor or something?”
I was amused. But not enough to give her the five bucks she (inevitably) requested a little later on in the conversation.
It worried you enough that you started this thread, and to this day, it still bothes you. Next time, give the guy a few bucks and consider it a part of your annual charitable donations.
I’ve been approached several times by people wanting gas money. Every time I’ve offered gas instead of money I’ve been declined. I’ve yet to have one ask at a gas station though, that mihtgt be more believable.“Sure, there is a gas station a block away, meet me there I’ll fill you up” “I have a gas can in my truck, where is your car?”
The best was I had my truck with a diesel fuel tank in it and some regular gas cans. The guy saw me get out of the truck. He gave me a sob story asking for gas money.
I said “I have ten gallons I can fill you up with”
“nah man it’s a diesel”
“Oh well in that case I can fill you up I have a hundred gallons of on-road diesel”
“I’ll hit someone else up”
“good luck with that”
“asshole”
About ten years ago(2008ish) I was approached by someone who said they needed gas money while I was putting groceries in the trunk of my car.
My response to them was if I had money to give away I wouldn’t be driving around in a 1988 Chevrolet Celebrity that had rust holes all over it and noticeably bald tires.
That seem to shut them up.
I ended junking that car three years later and got a 2002 Ford Focus which I’ve had since.
So, he left his home with people under his care without enough gas to get to his other son’s home. What was he planning to do when he got there and how was he getting back?
Put a dollar in a scam jar every time you get a request like this and donate it to an organization that helps people or give it to a friend in need.
“I stick my neck out for nobody.”
-Rick Blaine, Casablanca.
I get asked for money EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to the gas station!
Of course, I live in New Jersey, so the guy asking is the gas station attendant. 
Never really thought about how a benefit of NJ’s “all full-serve” laws is that nobody bothers you at gas stations because you’re in your car and there are workers around. Huh.
I’d be happy for any of you to buy me a tank of gas. I’ll meet you at the Sunoco down the street.
“hunh”, indeed. 
It’s so common that I think “can I have money for gas” should just be seen as a face-saving euphemism when panhandling, not taken literally. Either give a few bucks cash or don’t, but don’t agonize over it. I almost think it’s a bit of a dick move to try to offer a panhandler actual gas to catch them in a lie. I don’t think it rises to the level of a “lie” or a “scam”, it’s not intended to be taken literally. And I think that’s consistent with my disinclination to give anything if I’m given some extended complicated bullshit sob story, rather than just “I need gas to get home”.
Food’s a bit different. I think it’s reasonable to have a policy of only giving food (not cash), whatever the panhandler asks for. Although I’d generally ask if it would be welcome before buying it, like a previous poster I’ve had it thrown back at me.
We don’t really get people hanging around at petrol stations here, they’d get moved on by the police if they were bothering people, but I have been approached for money from time to time. I just decide on the day what to do. Begging is a criminal offence here, so we aren’t supposed to give anyone anything. One time, there was a girl sitting outside the train station. I spoke to her and asked what the deal was, she said she’d been booted out of home and was trying to get money for accommodation. I asked if she needed anything and she asked for some water. I bought her a couple of bottles and she seemed grateful. I don’t really care whether it was a ruse, I don’t think young girls should be sitting outside train stations and if you are a scammer at that age, something in your life hasn’t been great to get you to that stage.
I don’t think you can necessarily judge people by how they are dressed or what they are driving (could be a hire car or a borrowed car, they might not even have a car). Somebody who was in a good job and lost it might be “dressed well”, it doesn’t necessarily reflect their current circumstances. And vice versa. I dress like a bag lady, but I could afford better if I cared to and didn’t go up the shops after messing about in the garden.
The one that REALLY annoys me and I recall years later is the woman who came to my house to buy something and then ‘didn’t have the money’. She went through this stupid rigmarole of going out to her car to find change and then claimed to only have $X (the price was in the ad, why would you turn up with less than that?). She was obviously a dealer thinking she was tricking me, if she had just made an offer for less, I’d have said “yes”, I wanted rid of the item. She made me sick, she was just a greedy pig, IMO. I should have told her to nick off, but I did want to get rid of the item which was sitting in my kitchen with nowhere else to put it. Scammers don’t always come in the form of people asking you for something.
wow - thats taking ‘reject the pan handlers’ to a new extreme - are they offering you money now?