Lately, when people ask me for money, I've been trying to give them more than they've asked for. Usually twice as much. People rarely ask for a lot, so giving twice as much is usually pretty easy out of an average pocket-worth of change.

I think maybe I'll try do that more deliberately. I'm looking for some signal to people that the change isn't begrudged. You could just smile at someone and say "You're welcome". But as I come from an economic tradition I have a bias towards signals that are costly to fake. This signal certainly isn't in the costliness order of Les Miserables, but I suppose that's where the thought comes from.