Borealis
Seaopgal thank you for the helpful suggestions and should this type of encounter happen again I will be better prepared to set a better boundary quicker. It caught me by surprise and unfolded slowly as I first was assessing if the person was intoxicated or mentally ill. I wanted to be kind and give him a chance to say something and was caught off guard about the money. He did go back to his table and kept to himself, but I the escalation of money giving and second approach disturbed me. I don’t want to set off a witch hunt, but also hope that by putting something out in the public space, parents like me might have or revisit the conversation with their own children, hopefully I am wrong and this was just a chance encounter. If there is a person at large, I hope that people better prepared than I might help keep safe boundaries.