Watch out for monks with gold calling card on donation drive
On the morning of Chinese New Year's Day, a monk came to my flat. After wishing me Happy Chinese New Year, he gave me a gold name card with a picture of the Prosperity God.
Then he whipped out a notebook and asked me to write my name in it. I looked at the notebook and saw it had the names of people and the sums they donated, from $40 to $80. I politely refused and he left.
This is not my first encounter with such a monk. I've met one in town doing the same thing. He tells you the meeting was due to good karma. He would give you the same sort of card, usually with Buddha printed on it before asking for donations.
These monks are not an uncommon sight in town, where they go on a donation drive. The sums shown in the notebooks are not insignificant. I have seen donations of $200 written in them.
Are the donation drives of these monks legitimate? They do not introduce themselves nor say which temple or monastery they hail from. More often than not, they speak with a China accent.
Do the Buddhist temples in Singapore send their monks on these donations drives? If they are using religion as a means to collect money, shouldn't the police clamp down on them?
It could also warn the public about them.
I posted the forum letter above coz this silly gal here is also a victim. Glad that someone else had a similar experience and walked off with more sense than me.
I was approached opposite St Andrew's Cathedral during lunch one day. This monk was standing in the middle of the walkway distributing the so-called golden cards. (If u want a better idea, it's like those shiny sticker cards we used to get when we insert coins into those tiny vending machines.) I've this bad habit of mine, which is my auto-reflex arm. Meaning that when someone hands something to me on the streets, I'll automatically take it. That's why I'm especially susceptible to flyers. And why those kids handing out flyers love me..
And like what happened to the guy above, after I took the card, I was supposed to fill in my name in his book. The totally bogus part about the monk is the notebook. Filled in two neat rows in the same handwriting were the names of donors and their donation amount of $50 beside the names. Now, wouldn't u find it strange that everyone of these people would donate $50 ? I mean, C'mon, this is S'pore and I'm a flag day veteran.
And this monk asked me to give any amount that came from the heart. And I tried returning the card to him but to no avail. So in the end, I took out my wallet and found that I only had a ten-dollar note left for lunch. So I told him I didn't bring enough cash and he said he can return me the change....?!!
In the end, I wanted to give him $5 but donated $6 instead. This was coz he did not have enough loose change for me.
Till today, I still dunno what possessed me. Heh.. I actually gave away 3/5 of what I had! *Faints*
These monks are really destroying the reputation of Buddhism though. It reeks of a scam to boot! Tsk!
