Diner borrows homeless man's shoes to get into restaurant
A homeless man came to the rescue of a Manchester diner turned away from a restaurant because he was wearing sandals.
Akbar Badshah was looking forward to joining his wife Rozmin for her birthday celebration and also breaking his fast on the first day of Ramadan.
Mr Badshah, 36, said he was stopped from entering the upmarket Brazilian restaurant Fazenda because he was wearing black open-toed shoes.
After he was knocked-back, Mr Badshah approached a homeless man, identified only as John, who was sitting nearby with his labrador.
The diner asked John if he could borrow his shoes, and the homeless man did not hesitate to hand his pair over, the Manchester Evening News reported.
Mr Badshah offered John money for the gesture, but he refused to take it.
“I said, ‘John what size are you’ he said ‘14’,
“I’m a size 9, so it’s a good job it wasn’t the other way round,” Mr Badshah added.
“He said, ‘you won’t believe this, but I’ve got a brand new pair of shoes from an outreach project’, and he said I could borrow them, so we swapped shoes.”
The grateful diner tried to hand over £10 to thank John for lending his shoes, but the homeless man insisted he was simply happy to help Mr Badshah enjoy his dinner.
“He wouldn’t take it. I said ‘please, please I want to give it to you.”
Overhearing the pair’s conversation, a man in his 50s walked past and handed John a £50 note ($84).
“John couldn’t believe it. It was unbelievable karma,” Mr Badshah said.
“He kept saying he didn’t want anything in return. I gave John a hug and we took some photos together – we just felt so touched by what he had done.”
