Entering an airport coffee shop, he spots a woman with her head folded into her arms, slumped across a table. He takes a seat beside her and asks what's wrong.
She looks up and doesn't seem to recognize Ali, but tells him her purse has been stolen. The woman, wearing a pink warm-up suit, is short and heavier than she needs to be. She has graying black hair and deep-set green eyes that bulge as if someone has grabbed her around the neck and has squeezed, not real hard, but steadily, for many, many years.
She laughs a weary laugh and says: "It had all my money in it. I don't know how I'm going to get home. And how can I tell my husband? He doesn't like me spending so much, anyway. Sometimes we have some real blowouts over money."
Ali puts his pamphlets on the table and pulls a tattered brown cowhide wallet from his pants pocket. It has $300 cash in it and an old picture of him with eight of his kids. Although he is no longer world-class wealthy, he gives the woman $280.
Ali's generosity has allowed him to be taken for millions of dollars over the years, often by those he has called his friends.