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Long life

Why it's better to give money to a beggar than to a charity

The recipient will be genuinely grateful — unlike charities, who spy on and persecute their benefactors

30 January 2016

9:00 AM

30 January 2016

9:00 AM

No good deed goes unpunished. This is a saying that applies with special poignancy to Olive Cooke, the 92-year-old poppy seller who jumped to her death in the Avon Gorge near Bristol after receiving something like 3,000 begging letters a year from charities. Mrs Cooke was a great believer in charity.

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