Fascinating Social Experiment: How Much Does a Homeless Person Earn in Tel Aviv?

A social media influencer named Lidor Buhbut was curious about how much a homeless person earns in Tel Aviv on a busy day full of donations. To find out, he tore his clothes, went to the beach to get wet, and even rolled in the sand to look like a real homeless person.

"If I asked you for 10 shekels on the street, would you give it to me? That's what we're going to find out," he said when his costume was ready. With a piece of cardboard and a disposable cup, he headed to his first destination in Tel Aviv: Gordon Beach. "At Gordon Beach, I sat for 20 minutes, and I admit the result really surprised me," he recounts, showing his cup filling up. "I already have a full 30 shekels here. People actually gave me money, but it's much harder than I thought—so don't underestimate it."

His second location was on a lawn in one of the more central streets, practically appealing to passersby. "Hey man, do you have some change?" he extends the cup to one of the young men passing by, who continues on as if he's 'nothing,' ignoring the request. However, just minutes later, the camera shows how his cup starts to fill up with quite a bit of money.

"At that moment, I realized homeless people make a lot of money on the streets," he says, questioning, "so why do they still live in such harsh conditions?"

At location number 2, where he sat for another 20 minutes, he earned 70 shekels and also got a new shirt.

Location number 3 was on the road itself. "I admit, it was so hard for me that I needed breaks," he says. "But I reached a crazy insight from this day. On a main road in Tel Aviv, a homeless person can make 30 shekels in twenty minutes. After an hour of begging, I walked away with quite a bit of money. My insight is that homeless people don't lack money. They have a lot of money on the street; their problem is more mental. They don't believe they can achieve a better place in their lives."

Watch here images from Lidor's video, which was posted on social networks and went viral:

So how much did he earn in that hour of begging?

"I made 128 shekels and concluded that if I give money to the homeless, they will fuel their existing lifestyle and only ruin their lives—so it's better to give them other kinds of help," he concludes.