One who arranges with a poor person that he will give him a specific weekly or monthly amount of money has done something which is good on the one hand and bad on the other. It is good in that the poor person is not constantly worried that he will not have a livelihood and relies permanently on the donor and this is a great kindness for the pauper. It is bad on the other hand in that sometimes the donor loses some of his wealth and is no longer able to give his regular fixed donation to that poor person, and he nevertheless continues to do so out of embarrassment and in this case the poor person is doing something which is close to theft. Furthermore, sometimes the poor person does not need the money so much and the donor would far rather give the money to a different charity but the poor person does not allow him to stop giving to him and he ends up giving against his own will. It is therefore better not to give any particular poor person a fixed amount to rely on and instead make sure to give to all people who need charity according to his means. A man who measures his deeds justly is good.
