A childhood belief about money

When I was little I recall an incident where my mother was trying to get me to be thankful for what I had. She explained to me that there were people in the world who were so poor that they had to pick food out of the gutter. In a struggle to understand this horriffic level of poverty my four year old mind confused the details and for years I believed that people were trapped under the sewer grates and couldn't get out to get food. I wondered for a long time why people never put ladders and boxes of pizza (one of my favorie foods at the time) in front of the sewers so the people could get out and eat.