‘Homeless’ Vancouver man rewards strangers for kindness

A man disguised as a homeless person on the streets of Vancouver has been handing out cash to the kind strangers trying to help him.

Yogi Omar is one of those kind strangers. When he saw the derelict-looking man with a scruffy beard sitting on a street corner and asking for change around midnight on Wednesday, he struck up a conversation with him and offered to buy him a meal and warm clothing.

The man confessed he wasn't actually homeless, just participating in an annual random-act-of-kindness project in which he and his family help people who are kind to Vancouver's homeless population.

The man asked Omar how much he paid in rent — then gave him that exact amount in cash.

"And I'm like what? $469 exactly. And then he just whipped out cash and gave me $469 in exact change," Omar told CBC News.

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The stranger's generosity had perfect timing. Omar recently had to plan a last-minute trip to China to visit his terminally ill father.

"We started talking and I shared my story about my dad suffering from cancer and that I'm spending a lot of my savings to buy last minute plane tickets to see him in China and that I'm on a bit of a pinch financially. Guess what...he decided to pay for my January rent," Omar wrote on Facebook.

To the stranger on the street corner, Omar told CBC News he wanted to simply say, "Thank you."

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"I hope people see this and just share the love with people around them. Be kind and share the love," he told Metro News.

Vancouver woman Amanda Adams shared a similar story online.

"I wasn't the only one! This happened to her too!!! Maybe this guy is really Santa!" wrote Omar.