I have been informed that the begging season is in full swing. This has me confused because I thought that the months of Ramadan and Haj were the prime seasons for beggars. Now I have been told by one and all that the end of the summer vacation is one of the most lucrative times of the year for begging. My sources must be correct in their assessment because currently Alkhobar is overrun by people with their hands out.

Being badgered on every corner by folks asking for cash is a new phenomenon here in this Eastern Province city. I used to feel sorry for the residents of Makkah and Jeddah. Those cities host some of the most aggressive beggars known to mankind. West Coast beggars beat on car windows, chase pilgrims across mosque courtyards and thrust their deformed limbs before startled eyes. A colleague once told me that he had seen a beggar dragging himself over the pavement, just centimeters above the ground, between lanes of traffic at one of Jeddah’s busiest intersections.

I don’t want to put out any misconceptions. We have always had beggars in Alkhobar, but they’ve been the quiet, well-mannered sort. Poor women would sit outside supermarkets, with babies in arms wrapped in their cloaks, and papers listing their tales of woe, set on the ground before them. Some supermarket patrons would place a few riyals on top of the papers and move on with their business. There was no compulsion.

But those days are gone. A new breed of beggars has sprung up in the city and they are frightening. Gangs are using children to solicit alms at the busiest intersections in Alkhobar. Take for example the junction of King Abdul Aziz and Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Streets. This 12-lane intersection has been the scene of some of the most grisly traffic accidents in the Kingdom. Every night for the past month, a young girl and an adolescent boy, holding another younger boy by the hand, have been working the eastbound lanes of the intersection. They are terrifying to watch as they walk through moving oncoming traffic. The moment the cars halt, they start begging. Some nights, police have been at the intersection for hours manually controlling the traffic. The children continue begging in their presence.

I have been advised that the police find it very difficult to catch the youngsters. They resist chasing them, fearing that the children might be struck and killed while attempting to escape through the moving vehicles. I have seen drivers giving the children alms and urging them to get out of the street. It is useless. I have tried to talk to the youngsters. They simply ignore me. One night after watching the intersection for more than an hour, I saw the children eagerly pile into the backseat of an old white car that stopped at the traffic light. I could see other children inside already and I felt ill.

Vehicles are being used in other schemes to extort money from passersby. Three times in the past week, a taxi has pulled up beside me as I walked down Alkhobar’s streets. Each time the man in the passenger seat has told a variant of the same story. While returning from a funeral, they experienced car trouble and spent all their money on the repairs. Now they have no money to get back to their home in some distant town and the child sitting in the back is hungry and wants his mother. Once, I offered to pay for gasoline from a nearby station. I was refused. These people only want cash. It is interesting that taxi drivers are willing to participate in such scams. It must pay better than working honestly for fares.

In the past, it used to be foreigners who were most active as beggars, but now I have noticed that there are a lot of Saudis hoping to benefit from the traditional kindness of the local population. Leaving the supermarket on Tuesday night, my son and I were approached by a Saudi handing out booklets about Islamic issues. I quickly moved away, but so as not to be rude, my son took the materials being offered.

The man immediately pounced on the opportunity and began reciting his prepared story. The booklets were not free; he was selling them to pay his rent. My son asked the man why he had not registered with one of the local charities that were more than willing to help any Saudi in need. The man made an excuse that the paperwork required by such groups took time, and he needed the rent money immediately. Politely my son handed the Saudi a few riyals and tried to move away, but the man was not satisfied with his takings. "Ask your mother for some more," he boldly ordered.

As a Muslim I have always understood the necessity of helping the needy, but in Alkhobar it clearly is not the needy who are doing the begging and the situation is out of control. The beggars are coming after us in shopping malls, amusement arcades and fast-food restaurants. They lurk on the footpaths and near the playgrounds on the Corniche. They approach us as we exit coffee shops and upscale boutiques. Even private establishments interested in preventing beggars from harassing patrons are finding that stopping them is a struggle. The beggars are tidy and well-dressed, so they are difficult to pick out from the real customers. When security guards approach them, the beggars claim to be patrons of the mall or recreation facility and act highly incensed. The worst ones are those who refuse to be ignored. I have had them reach out and pull at my abaya or block my path, so there is no choice but a confrontation. It can be frightening.

We can only hope that the resumption of school next week will reduce the begging menace. I have my doubts. Alkhobar with its well-paid technicians and influx of Saudi families from Riyadh each weekend, is probably too attractive a target for the charlatans to abandon. Perhaps the only thing for me to do is to find a dirty, tattered abaya to wear for excursions to public places. The shabby abaya should help keep the swindlers away and if any security guard tries to oust me from a shopping mall for vagrancy, I will just tell him that the charge is preposterous. I will be too poorly attired to be a beggar.