[Ammi]

If a homeless man stopped you on the street and offered you money, what would you do?

That is the question being posed in a new YouTube video by entertainer Yousef Saleh Erakat, who disguised himself as a homeless man and found out that the answer was often less than kind.

As a man in a suit and on his cell phone walks by in the beginning of the video, Erakat gets his attention. 'I just want to be a helping hand today,' he says, offering the man a $10 bill.

The man holds his money for a second, astounded, before throwing it at Erakat.

'I don't need your *******ing money, you a******. I could *******ing buy you.'

Another man in a suit walks by, typing on his phone. 'I don't have any money man,' he says when he sees Erakat.

‘No I don’t need your money, I’m trying to give you money,' Erakat says. When the man says he doesn’t need Erakat's money the actor responds, ‘I’m just trying to help out today, here you go.’

‘Does it look like I need your money? *******k out of here,’ the man angrily replies, slapping his hand away before walking off.

'In today's society it's socially acceptable for the wealthy to give money to the homeless,' Erakat explains in the video, posted on his fouseyTUBE channel.

'Is it acceptable because it's one individual helping another, or because one individual is better than the other - so it's okay to help?'



Erakat said he wanted to 'flip the script'. Throughout the video he appears barefoot, wearing a beanie and a cut-off hoodie jacket.

He holds a cardboard sign that reads, 'No one has ever become poor from giving.'


Another man tells Erakat to 'P*** off, mate,' when he's offered the $10 bill, and later a woman angrily asks him 'Are you trying to be funny? Are you kidding me?'.

One man stops and offers Erakat his water bottle, saying he wants to help him out but it's all he has to give give at the moment. But when Erakat offers him money instead, he gets angry.

'You wanna give me money, man? ******** you prick!' the man says as he gives the seemingly homeless man the finger and yet still taking the $10 bill.

Erakat's most volatile reaction comes when he offers to pay for a man's parking meter, showing him his cardboard sign.

'Let me give you something. You see that,' the man then asks, pointing to his white Mercedes Benz. 'That's a Benz - you gotta earn your way up, pal.'

After Erakat tells the man that advice was the most pretentious thing he's heard all day, the two begin yelling at each other as the man continues talking about carrying a black card and driving a $50,000 C-class car.

‘It doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter what car you drive, it matters how humble you are in your heart,' Erakat says.

'And you’re not really humble saying all that,’ he continues, to which the man just responds, ‘this is LA baby!’

Only two people featured in the video listen to the seemingly homeless man's offer and want to give him something in return.

One man hands Erakat back his $10 bill, adding some money of his own. 'I have all that I need too,' the man tells him.

When Erakat asks, 'you're going to give me all that?' the man responds, 'it's a good message man, so positive'.

'I know you're in a rush,' Erakat says as he tries to grab the attention of one woman. When she responds that she doesn't have any cash he tells her he's actually 'trying to give you cash'.

'No keep it,' she says, walking towards him. 'You need it.'



‘Look I’m broke as it is, the only way for me to feel rich in this world is by giving what I can,' Erakat responds. 'So here you go,’ he says, reaching out to hand her the bill.

'You know what? I have a few dollars,’ she then says, opening her wallet. ‘Why don’t you take more and make me feel rich for the day? Go get breakfast!’

Erakat gives the woman her money back before she can walk off and tells her she’s on camera.

‘I’m not trying to see who will give me money or who would not,’ he tells her. ‘But I’m just showing that the only thing they have in this world is to give to others.’

Erakat, whose YouTube channel has more than 5million subscribers, says the point of the video wasn't to see 'if people would offer us money'.

Instead, the vlogger wanted to discover 'how people feel about themselves when someone who is classified as "lesser" than them on society's class ladder offers them money".



He admits in the YouTube description that the results were 'not expected and not wanted'.

'It doesn't matter how much you have in life if what you have in life takes away from you being humble,' he writes.

'At the end of the day, even the most poor man can be the most rich depending on how much love he has in his heart.'

..link and vid...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ey-street.html

[kirklancaster]

Fascinating Ammi - I like the reaction below best:

'I know you're in a rush,' Erakat says as he tries to grab the attention of one woman. When she responds that she doesn't have any cash he tells her he's actually 'trying to give you cash'.

'No keep it,' she says, walking towards him. 'You need it.'

‘Look I’m broke as it is, the only way for me to feel rich in this world is by giving what I can,' Erakat responds. 'So here you go,’ he says, reaching out to hand her the bill.

'You know what? I have a few dollars,’ she then says, opening her wallet. ‘Why don’t you take more and make me feel rich for the day? Go get breakfast!’

Erakat gives the woman her money back before she can walk off and tells her she’s on camera.

‘I’m not trying to see who will give me money or who would not,’ he tells her. ‘But I’m just showing that the only thing they have in this world is to give to others.’

[Ammi]

..yeah, it's hard to fathom the total disgust from some because a homeless guy offers them money, Kirk..I can see that they wouldn't want to take his money but surely would have felt touched by his gesture..