25 AUGUST 2001, Page 55

Q. Problem: how to give money without causing offence to

a poor, proud, but intellectually combative person? Solution: Deliver yourself of a flawed but challenging assertion like: big rivers in France are masculine so, le fleuve, le Seine (no, la Seine); or: in Japan and China you drive on the left, owing to British influence (true in Japan hut not in China). In this way, with the complicity of some companions, I managed some years ago to deliver £50 to Moura Budberg.

A.B., Bellac, France A. Thank you so much for this genuinely useful tip. I would have thought well-wishers could bet up to £500 these days. Any figure above this might cause their would-be beneficiaries to smell a rat.