Bogus monk

How would you, as a lay person, distinguish a real monk from a bogus one if you were to meet a man in robes in a public space? 

To me, there are three clear signs:

1. A real monk would be accompanied by a helper (called a kapiyah) who would collect the alms presented to him.

2. A real monk would never accept any money as alms; only food or foodstuff which would be collected by his kapiyah.

3. A real monk would never go on his alms rounds after his midday meal.

Thus, I was surprised today to see his man in robes standing with an alms bowl at the Batu Lanchang market food court at around 1pm. Seeing him standing alone with no kapiyah in sight sent my suspicions working overtime. There are too many of them roaming the market place on the island and the mainland. Worse still in this case, he was standing right next to this banner telling people to say No to giving money to bogus monks.

One of my old friends related to me that last February. he encountered two fake monks in a coffee shop behind Chowrasta market. They noticed him taking pictures and came to ask him to erase the pictures. But he stood his ground and threatened to call the Police on them.