Bouddanath Stupa!, Or am I that gullible?

Interesting visit to Bouddhanath today and I hope I wasn't taken advantage of....

Bouddhanath stupa Bouddhanath is One of the largest in the world and the holiest to Tibetan Buddhists. It is filled with Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world and tourists and ringed by many monasteries, temples and tourist shops and cafe's.

It is a fun and interesting place for people watching- especially all the Buddhist groups from all over the world in their different outfits- and observing people praying and chanting.

After walking around watching the normal tourist stuff I heard some drumming, horns and chanting from upstairs above one of the hundreds of tourist shops and cafe's ringing the outside of the stupa and left the main stupa area to follow the drums upstairs. I ended up in a room full of monks and a lama performing the 28(?) day puja for an old lady. I sat down and listened for about 30 min and had tea and talked to one of the younger monks for awhile. I was invited to stay for their lunch but didn't.

As I left the puja, a middle-aged Tibetan refugee (recent- last 2-3 years),Tsering Norbu, came up to me and recognized me from Lamdon School! Not sure why, but he had been there while I was. He invited me to a monastery he was staying at. As we walked together to the monastery he told me the horrific tale of his father and young son (a monk) who were still in Tibet and had recently been shot and killed (his dad) and had his hands cut off (son) by the Chinese! I believe he said it was for trying to protect their yaks. He is trying to go back (with support of the monks) to bring his son out to Ladakh and send him to Lamdon School! It all seemed so real and he did recognize me, and did know the names of the Tibetan teachers.....? I gave him 1000 NPR ($10) to help. He gave me a string blessed by the Dalai Lama and a million hugs and blessings. Either he is a super con or I'm a gullible fool. I hope the first.