Walking along a seafront promenade with my then girlfriend (now wife) at night we passed a homeless guy who asked us for some change. I said sorry I didn't have any and we walked on. A few meters away I stopped and said to my girlfriend that I actually had some change and felt bad and would like to give him some. So I told my girlfriend to wait there and turned round walking back to him. As I approached him I could see he looked uncomfortable, he was avoiding eye-contact and shifting as if to make himself look smaller. He was cowering because he was scared of me. I said "Sorry, I actually do have some change". Everything about him seemed to relax and he said "Oh! I thought you were coming back to beat me up!"

I'm a bit short and not very intimidating looking at all ("standard nerd"). I'm not very aggressive at all and just want to get along with people. This guy was actually a good bit bigger than me. The fact that this poor man lived in fear of even little guys like me just beating him up for no reason really saddened me. My girlfriend and I chatted to him for a bit. I never saw him again. I hope he's doing okay now, wherever he is.

PS: Do horses really like cuddles or do they just kind of put up with them? I don't know much about horses, but I'd cuddle them if I knew they liked it, they're pretty cool.