New Age Monks

We were first encountered these "New Age Monks", as Mike and I call them, in Stirling. This hippie looking girl came up to us and asked us if we had ever met a monk. Well, after her short talk about what they do, she got to the point. She wanted money. We gave her about 50 pence making up some excuse about only having enough money for the bus ride home. Of course, this wasn't true, we wanted to spend the rest of our money on beer and ice cream. I felt slightly guilty about the fact that we LIED to a monk, but again, she looked like some ragamuffin and was collecting money on the street.
Then yesterday we met yet another monk on the street. This time a hippie looking guy. The first thing he said to us is "you two look like a fun loving couple, what turns your crank?" I am pretty sure that the only reason we stopped is that we were so surprised that some man would ask us this question in the very consertative Edinburgh. Again, "have you ever met a monk?" Yes, we had met one, and we have no money. Now these monks are incredibly PUSHY. Irritatingly so. He essentially tried to demand that we give him money until I just looked at him and said we have none with us. What part of "free admission day" was not clear to this guy. And poor students from the USA. The conversion rates are like 2:1, how do we have extra money?!? Finally we just walked away from the irritating monk and have since made sure to avoid any one looking like a hippie with a big side bag. I feel a little bad about lying to someone who claims to be so religious, but man are those guys annoying.