'Professional beggars' earning up to RM18,240 per month in Malaysia!

Life is hard but not for a beggar in Malaysia who can easily earn a whopping RM18,240 a month!

This shocking revelation came to light after Astro AWANI’s journalist, Israr Khalid, went undercover to unravel the income of a beggar, an unconventional profession that many would disapprove.

Israr’s adventure started in Bandar Tun Hussein Onn Ramadan Bazaar in Kuala Lumpur.

He dressed up in tattered clothes lugging a recycling bag and an empty food container.

After he walked around in the area looking pitiful, for 25 minutes, he had collected RM22.

For his next location, Israr dressed up in an old ‘kopiah’ and a strand of prayer beads in his hand.

People around the area were more generous and his loot there earned him RM56 in merely 20 minutes!

“Someone even talked to me. They asked me why I didn’t find work such as a dishwasher, since I loooked fit,” he said.

Simple maths: if a beggar can collect an estimation of RM76 in 45 minutes and consistently continue doing so for 8 hours, he can earn RM608 per day. That means his wage is totalled a whopping RM18,240 a month, which is way more than what a journalist like Israr,earns.

Israr said although Malaysians’ habit of giving alms should be applauded, at times, it goes overboard especially in encouraging begging syndicates that rob off people’s hard-earned income.

He said they came up with numerous ways to do so among others, using old folks and children to collect money.

Some even hand out charity boxes or donation boxes and other stash the notes that they received away, and leave only a few notes on the collection dishes, to create empathy.

The ‘Islamic image’ that some beggars adopt seems to earn them more 'kaching' especially during Ramadan.

“Isn’t this something that is prohibited by God?” he questioned.

He said a lot of people fall prey to this ‘Islamic image’ just because many Muslims were taught to have a ‘Husnuzhon’ mentality.