The Beggar's diary, 12.09.2007.- In the morning, Filch meets Sophie, the guardian angel at the Switch+ info point. She's leaving for Alicante next week; she’s taking some wool and she plans to knit all day long. That’s her dream for her holidays. How about taking with her the collective work "The Scarf," which no one has touched in ages. Yes, why not. And why not turn it into something a lot more useful, like a hat with special earflaps.
http://beta.thebeggarsopera.org/node/117

He sticks to his plan of selling money, and this time he even puts on displays the plain, everyday 20 Euro bill Christine gave him. He is going to sell it for 25 Euro, and that's good business, you must admit. Surprisingly, he doesn’t manage to sell it. But he still attracts a lot of people to his improvised stand.
A car parks next to the stand and an old man in blue overalls steps out. As soon as he's out of sight, two parking ticket officers enter the scene. They see the car and draw their weapons, i.e., their electronic ticketing device.
Filch wants to help the old man, and explains to the severe, but surely not heartless, officers that the old man just left a minute earlier and will certainly be back in no time. The officers are hard-trained, no-nonsense people, and they know when someone is trying to pull their leg. But Filch insists. And then the old man comes back and to Filch's surprise, he does not apologize for being parked illegally. Not at all. He is arrogant and bad mannered, acts like the tough guy, and laughs in the officers' faces. The officers just give him a warning and leave, and the old man looks haughtily at Filch, as if to say: "They wouldn't dare to misbehave with an old man like me." Well, so much for august old age.
A journalist once suggested that Filch, by accepting to be at the Spiekerhof from 11 to 13:00, was giving up freedom and poetry to comply, with a civil servant-like dullness, with the Grand Tour tourism. That's all absolutely true.
He is there between 11am and 1pm, giving away SP07 balloons to little girls, informing tourists, and entertaining the citizens of Muenster.
A group of tourists on rented bikes stop at the Spiekerhof and park their bikes. They are going to the Grosser Kiepenkerl for lunch.
Filch ads some extra hours of work to his dull, civil servant existence by staying longer at the Spiekerhof to guard the bikes, hoping he might get a tip. He even puts tape around them to mark his guarding territory. The extra hours give him the chance to meet a woman studying catholic theology. He really had a lot of things to discuss with this student of catholic theology: religion, mass, and beggars. What's the attitude of the catholic crowd towards beggars who hang around outside churches after mass? The girl is rather disappointed with the state of catholic charity, but when Filch suggest she leave the catholic faith if she is not happy with it, she says:
"I can't"
"Why not?"
"Because ‘she’ is my mother."

Back at the info point, a young man asks:
"Filch? Is that you?"
The man is just watching the DVD of SP07, where the work "The Beggar's Opera" is presented, along with all the other sculptures. Filch explains a bit about his day and shows him the little fliers he has been trying, so unsuccessfully, to distribute for money. Upon hearing the story, a girl recalls Charlie Brown:

"Charlie Brown is writing two lists, and Lucy asks him what he's doing.
‘I’m writing down everything that I've ever learned in my life.’
‘Why are you making two lists, then, one long, one short?’ Lucy asks.
‘The long one mentions everything I learned the hard way.’"

Someone grabs Filch's arm, squeezes it in fact. It’s a tour guide, who asks if she could "show him" to her group.
"I suppose I am free to decide if I want to be ‘shown’ or not."
"Yes, of course, I apologize for being so rude. Only if you want to."

So he is successfully shown to a group of teachers who were invited by a bank to partake of this guided tour. The bank representative is so thankful for Filch's accessibility that he gives him a 5 Euro bill. He stuffs it into Filch's hand.

How can we explain it? This is the first time that Filch has truly felt like a beggar.

Filch opens his hand, smoothes out the bill, and shows it to everyone, like a trophy.

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