The proprietor said, "If you wanta pull in here an’ camp it’ll cost you four bits. Get a place to camp an’ water an’ wood. An’ nobody won’t bother you."
"What the hell," said Tom. "We can sleep in the ditch right beside the road, an’ it won’t cost nothin’."
The owner drummed his knee with his fingers. "Deputy sheriff comes on by in the night. Might make it tough for ya. Got a law against sleepin’ out in this State. Got a law about vagrants."
"If I pay you a half a dollar I ain’t a vagrant, huh?"
"That’s right."
Tom’s eyes glowed angrily.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 16. This conversation develops when the Joad family pulls up at a place to camp for the night. Tom reacts refuses to pay the exploitative landowner who demands a 50 cents fee in order to sleep there. When Tom says that he will sleep for free at the side of the road, the camp owner threatens him with a visit from the deputy sheriff for being a vagrant. But he won’t be a vagrant if he pays half a dollar, the owner confirms. This display of corruption with law enforcement working hand in glove with greedy landowners provokes Tom’s anger.