[Nulgath]

Poor proud kakek in East Jakarta refuses to beg, makes a living letting people use his weight scale

There’s a common perception in Jakarta that many of the city’s poor resort to begging because they would can earn more money doing that than if they worked small jobs. For instance, this old man was found to have Rp 3.6 million on him after only two weeks of begging – money he used to pay for female companionship.

While that kakek (old man) should not be emulated, another poor kakek is tugging at netizens’ heartstrings for his refusal to beg despite his financial condition.

Photos of the elderly man have gone viral on Facebook ever since they were posted on October 26, garnering almost 9,000 shares at the time of writing. It is described in the post that the frail-looking kakek has often been spotted around the streets of East Jakarta carrying a weight scale. The scale is supposedly his source of income – he lets people use it to weigh themselves and they can pay him any amount of money they like.

A commenter on the post wrote that he met the kakek once, who said that his name is Oih, he’s 71 years old and he lives in Klender, East Jakarta.

It’s truly admirable that Oih would rather find a way to make a living besides begging. If you want to find out how much you weigh and help an old man at the same time, Oih is said to frequent Rawamangun and Jatinegara in East Jakarta.