An Irish comedian set up a social experiment in London to see if people would steal from a homeless person.
James Slattery is a YouTube prankster but in this video he turned his attention to the public to see how they would react when faced with a chance to pick up some free money from a sleeping homeless person.
Of course most people wouldn’t dream of stealing a small amount of money from someone who needs it far more than themselves – but what if the stakes were a bit higher?
Instead of experimenting with a handful of loose change, Slattery sent in an actor dressed as an Arab billionaire and placed £5,000 (€5,800) in front of the sleeping homeless man (played by Slattery).
The money may have been fake but the passers-by didn’t know that. The experiment was repeated in four different locations around London.
The first was in a subway tunnel and it wasn’t long before two women spotted the cash and went over to the ‘homeless man’.
However, instead of stealing it they hid the money underneath his cardboard covers. They later told the camera that they thought it wouldn’t be long before someone would come along and take the money.
On one occasion, a real homeless person woke Slattery to give him the money before it was stolen.
Slattery was moved. He told the homeless man: “Do you know what, this is a social experiment. We’ve done three or four different scenarios today.
“A lot of honest people, but nobody homeless honest enough to give it back to me. I can’t believe you’re homeless and you’re actually giving it back to me.”
Take a look at the video below.
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling
