Personally I find the Blind Beggar plot not merely implausible as a true story but not even very convincing fiction. If the father actually had lots of money, why did he go about as a beggar? It wasn't (as in some other songs) in pursuit of his own amorous adventures. Was it just to make absolutely sure that whatever man took his daughter would be doing so for love, not for money? Did he really need to go to quite those extreme lengths? The ballad is typical in recounting what (supposedly) happened without saying much about the characters' motives.

Plausible or not, clearly the story was popular, and in the form of the tidied-up ballad remains so to this day among revival performers.