A legless beggar sits in front of a church. Some people pass him by, others give him some money. Finally a flic demands his permit. The beggar hands it to him and while it is being examined, gets up on his legs and flees.
There's something middle class and bourgeois about this film, the implication that beggars are out to cheat the respectable people. This, the new form of cinema could claim respectability, pander to middle-class fears and also amuse the typical patron of movies, people too poor to afford a theater ticket, who would be amused by the confidence game.