Last week I was on the 2 train headed uptown—a press conference to open this wonderful exhibit at the Museum of Natural History—when those dreaded words rang out in the subway car, sounding not unlike Robin Williams playing a Vietnam-era disc jockey: “Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am homeless and hungry…”

I say “dreaded words” because these claims rarely look to be true. (Well, at least the homeless part; the hungry part is hard to ascertain.) These subway panhandlers are usually decently dressed and don’t show many of the signs of homelessness—odor, incoherence, a bag of possessions, ragged clothing. I don’t give to them because I generally don’t believe they aren’t just beggars and because, frankly, the subway is stressful enough without creating an incentive for people to continue begging on it. Instead, I write checks to organizations, and occasionally I’ll give to people on the street who really do seem to need the money. And I give to the guy at Times Square who has no arms and hangs around his neck a sign asking for money. I don’t care how much money that guy gets, it’s not enough.

So as the train passed 14th Street on this morning, I declined to contribute to this man’s outstretched hat as he made his way down the subway car and—blessed silence—into the next.

Most of the train passengers got off around 42nd Street, and my car was largely empty when the door at the front opened and the beggar returned. He was quiet this time; no shouts, no requests for help to buy food. He sat down a couple seats away from me, looking decidedly more relaxed and vigorous than he had on his previous visit. Then he calmly, and with a complete lack of self-consciousness, pulled from his front pocket a stack of bills about three inches thick and began counting his money. I couldn’t keep track, but even if it was all ones, it was certainly into the three figures.

Yesterday I opened my New York Post to see that I wasn’t the only one who’d seen this guy tallying up; a Post reporter had witnessed him further uptown and photographed him. Not only photographed him, but identified him: This particular homeless guy is named Jeffrey Hillman, and he was made famous a few months ago when he was begging, shoeless, in Times Square and a New York cop bought him a pair of boots. Someone caught the act of generosity on video and it went viral.

But according to a minister who knows the man, this beggar clears up to $1, 000 a day. He’s also out begging in Times Square again—sans boots.

This is why I never give to subway panhandlers.