I think there might be misremembering involved, but I think the ‘trick’ simply consists of:
Getting the mark to engage with the beggar, instead of blanking
Getting the mark to put his hand in his pocket and admit he has change
After that, the money is as good as given away, regardless whether the guess is a hit.
The beggars in Portsmouth always ask for a small, but very specific sum of money - often something that would be mildly troublesome to sort or count out from a loose handful of change, so it ends up being:
Beggar: 'scuse mate, I’m sorry to trouble you, but could you lend me 55p for a phone call? Mark: (instinctively puts hand in pocket, and thus has already lost the game - Pulls out a handful of change. There’s a dirty, smelly beggar right in his face, he feels threatened and makes a snap decision that will end the discomfort) Mark: Here’s a quid. (walks away, relieved)
okay,now…to sum up the responses—we ain’t got no good answer yet!
So l propose to the OP that he go back to Safeway another few times…maybe more than a few times.
Collect more data, and try to keep track of it.
Carry a specific amount of change which varies each time. And most importantly, keep track of your own reactions,emotions, etc—what tell-tale signs are you giving out, sub-consciously or not?
And watch the beggar-woman very,very carefully–
Is she being more confrontational than you realized, so you just stop counting when you reach her amount and give it to her so she’ll get out of your face? Watch her hands, too.
And please figure out what’s going , so we can solve this mystery!
What?!? Look, I bow down to your great knowledge of these things, but it seems to me you are seriously misrepresenting what happened in that parking lot. The OP never mentioned any writing down of amounts! That’d be a hell of a thing to omit! I’m sticking with my explanation in post #49, that the woman essentially flustered the OP and her friend into making a rough estimate based on a quick glance at the change. They really just wanted to get it over with and get the emaciated crone away from them and they were quite happy to see 83 cents (or whatever) on a quick glance when in fact there was only 73 cents, or 78 or 88 or some number where a nickle, dime or penny was missing to make up the correct amount. Anything in the rough vicinity of 83 cents would be seen as 83.
I bet that the old crone occasionally scores a direct hit, and fifty percent of the time, gets close enough that the person’s brain quickly “sees” the correct amount as the stench from the withered witch overpowers them. They hand it over, even though it was 11 cents off, and they come away, slowly recovering their senses and saying: How’d she do that?" The rest of the time, the aged harpy is waaaay off, and it’s really obvious, and shrugs her shoulders and has a ready line, and so the person hands it over anyway.
C’mon OP, was there any writing down of amounts? I’m assuming that (like me) you’d be ever-so-slightly flustered by this woman into seeing the amount she mentioned, but these guys are suggesting that you were so frazzled you forgot key elements of the story!
Magicians always say something like that - part of the package of being a professional magician seems to be: Always say you know how it was done, but can’t tell, and: Meet anyone else’s theory with the response “Well, yes, that would be one, rather crude way to do it”.
I came back to say the same thing. The beggars around here are pretty predictable. The fact that that the OP ran into her twice suggests that’s her regular spot. I’m holding onto my theory in post #7 that it’s just a ruse to get your money out of your pocket. If the OP hasn’t left out any details I think it was lucky guesses, as remarkable as that may seem.
You’re correct; I missed that. But why was she in the parking lot and about to start her car if she had not gone in the store yet? Did she go to a different store? If so, perhaps the begger is working with more than one cahsier…
That occurred to me the moment I read the OP, but upon rereading I saw that Hilarity mentions a change purse on the first encounter, so it seems like we can rule out the beggar being skillful at reading bumps in a person’s pants.
I think Tripolar may have hit the nail on the head about how she could be playing the odds without doing any calculations. It may be that she’s been doing this in that paticular lot long enough that she knows from memory the most typical amounts. She may even have it down to gender and what store they just came from.
I think she meant she always pays for groceries with a card. I use my debit card on about 95% of things I buy, especially bigish purchases like the week’s groceries, but I still usually have some change in my wallet.
I’m not buying this “normal amount of change” thing, either. Most women have a change purse or compartment in their purse/wallet. It doesn’t get emptied out every evening, it accumulates randomly. You don’t usually go into a store with just bills and come out with change. I just checked mine (having no idea whatsoever how much change I had) and I’ve got $1.67 in coins: 5 quarters, 4 dimes, 2 pennies. Someone on the last page did a little “predictable amounts” breakdown, and I’d guess that particular change combo would be “unlikely”.
As for communication with a clerk, I’m not seeing that, either. When I pay for something with cash, they usually hand me back bills with the change stacked on top. I dump the change into the coin compartment of my wallet to mingle with whatever change I already have in there; there is no way for the clerk to see/count it without being very obvious about it.
I think we should get some statistical data. Someone set up a poll to see how much change the average person has on them. Maybe do it 0-5, 6-10 etc to start, then take the most popular group and break it down to 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 cents.
