Compassionate or conned?

To Mandai Rd, 42 km. The usually deserted road past the columbarium is jammed today, as the live visit the dead. With my semi-slicks, I do one lap along Mandai. My body still aches from yesterday. On the return leg, I spot a roadie and slip past him. He sits on my tail for a while, then blasts past as I strain at 41 km/h. My mind also drifts to the past, to 2003 when I last had my semi-slicks on. Those were they days, when my friends would cycle to Johore for off-road. Now, those days are gone. Also gone is $2.90. I stop when a man at a bus stop calls out. He says his company bus had left without him and he needs to get to work. He asks for $2.90 and I dig it out for him. It could be a con; he sounds slick and if he wanted train fare, why didn't he ask at the station? But it could be for real: why didn't he just take what I'd given him and look for another sucker, rather than take the risk and ask for $0.90 more?