Equanimity always has a caring with it, always a feeling of caring. When you keep this attitude of caring, you never fall into indifference. The minute you want to turn the caring off, you are going to move into indifference.
Selfishness, what I want, compared to selflessness, what I can give. This understanding is important. Indifference has selfishness with it, equanimity has selflessness with it. Equanimity and indifference may look exactly the same from the outside. You may see somebody who seems to be indifferent. Are they equanimous? We are not always sure. It can look the same from the outside. It's from the inside where you know whether it's equanimity or not. Sometimes it might be obvious from the outside, but often it is not.
Going back to the beggars on the street, Rosemary and I don't see many beggars because we live mostly at the Wat. So when we do visit the big cities, normally I have a certain amount of money in my pocket ready for beggars, the ones whom we think are truly beggars. Now, what happens if I run out of money when we see another beggar? It is not non-caring that I don't give them anything. It is equanimity knowing, I didn't carry enough coins in my pocket. Very soon after that I will go into a Seven-Eleven, I will buy a candy bar, anything just to get more change, so that I don't miss it again in the future.
Somebody else walking down the streets may pass by a beggar in exactly the same way as I just passed my last beggar and may look from the outside exactly the same, but this person has indifference as they actually have money in their pockets which they don't give. So again, from the outside we just can't always tell, but from the inside, looking whether you are still caring even if you can't do anything at that time.