“You are young and you beg?” I asked him. “Why do you not work?”

Signs of shame appeared on his face. “What work are you talking about? I have a job but my salary is not enough,” he replied.

I asked him how much his monthly salary was and he replied it was SR5000!

However, he gave me no time to express my astonishment.

“Do not be surprised. Prices in our country have skyrocketed and there is no one to regulate that,” he said.

“Some of our officials live in their ivory towers, completely oblivious to the predicament of low-income citizens because they have a lot of money.”

He went on to claim that the increase in prices was happening artificially, adding this was despite the fact the international financial crisis had receded and importers had reduced their prices.

A commodity that was sold for a single riyal is now being sold at three riyals, without any prior warning or justification, he said.

Oddly enough, he claimed, when the price of a commodity rises by one or two percent in other countries, there will be riots and boycotts.

Investigations will be opened to find out why prices have increased, he said, adding that when prices increase by 300 percent, 500 percent or even 1,000 percent in Saudi Arabia, there is no one to protect citizens.

“What’s made things worse are the utility bills that are eating into our salaries, with no one intervening,” he said.

Anger and nervousness got the better of him at that point.

“Businesses are all doing their best to suck the money out of our pockets through devilish means, including promotion campaigns and text messages from trading establishments and individuals,” he said.

“Banks are tempting us into taking out loans. The latest scheme is the offer to pay our debts for us through new loans! The banks also promote their credit cards through gifts, services and false promises of winning luxurious cars!”

He said that we should not also forget the travel agencies that provide citizens with offers to spend summer vacations abroad by paying for them through installments.

“I am now paying SR500 monthly to the travel agency for my last summer vacation. Like many others, I also fell prey to the car companies that offer to sell us cars by allowing us to pay installments and give us an advance of SR5,000!”

The young man continued by saying that he pays SR1,800 in rent, as well as SR1,500 monthly to a bank for a loan he lost in the stock exchange market, which he has been paying for three years now.

“I am left with nothing at the end of the month to pay my electricity or telephone bills, let alone my parents’ medication.”

He reminded me that he is not alone. Most young men with similar incomes have resorted to begging, he said.

I gave him some money and asked him to continue begging as long as there is no one to monitor prices or hold greedy merchants and banks accountable. You will remain in constant need, I told him.