grammar - Is this sentence correct grammatically?

I've been told by a person that the sentence below is incorrect grammatically and it does not make any sense. Specifically, that person told me that the part ''could do'' is wrong. ''Could do'', for him, should rather be replaced by ''had'' to make sense.

Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only way such a shameless individual as you could do.

As I'm not a native speaker, I'm not sure whether this sentence is correct or not grammatically? Therefore, I'd like to ask some native speaker here about whether the part ''could do'' is correct and whether the whole sentence is correct ? thanks

Answer

If you replace way by thing, then your sentence is grammatical and makes sense:

Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only thing such a
shameless individual as you could do.

This works because you can do things but you cannot do ways. For example,

• Begging was the only thing (that) she could do.




• ?Begging was the only way (that) she could do.

However, you can have ways. So your friend's suggestion:

Pretending to be a beggar on the street was the only way such a
shameless individual as you had

is grammatical and makes sense