History Main / BribingTheHomeless

So you're someone who wants to do something like commit a risky (and possibly illegal) task, or go somewhere forbidden, or buy something not easily accessible if you're under the minimum age, or even fix something around the house, but that's not even remotely possible by your own self.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Played with in Chapter 129. Momoha, who lives in a tent at the school where she works, gets decked with a stack of yen notes by Hahari to not watch a horse race serving free sake. The bribe comes about not because she's homeless, but so that she doesn't give in to her hedonism during their date with Rentarou.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Rubine}}'': While chased by goons through the alleys of the city, Rubine's brother runs into a homeless man at a 3-way intersection. Cut to the goons arriving on the scene.

* ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' was an early proponent of this technique - he had a wide network of homeless people and street urchins (or [[ValuesDissonance Street Arabs]] as he called them...) that would perform surveillance and relay messages for him. Adaptations set in later periods tend to solely portray this network as comprised of homeless people [[PragmaticAdaptation due to a marked decline in the street urchin population]].

* In the ''VideoGame/Hitman3'' Chongqing level "End of an Era", various homeless people can be found muttering about voices in their head, and act all confused as you walk past them. While it may look like a case of crazy homeless people, it transpires that Hush, one of your targets, is conducting human experiments on them to test his neural relay machine by promising the homeless money, under the façade of giving them a home or better living by doing some experiments...and then discarding them if they do not meet his needs. Ironically, Hush is only a target for pragmatic reasons as he's part of the dual-authentication procedure required to access the ICA Archives [[spoiler: required to whistle blow the ICA]], but everything you see and get told about him paints him in a truly detestable light, and totally has it coming.

So you're someone who wants to do something like commit a risky (and possibly illegal) task, or go somewhere forbidden, or buy something not easily accessible if you're under 18 years of age, or even fix something around the house, but that's not even remotely possible by your own self.

* In the ''VideoGame/Hitman3'' Chongqing level "End of an Era", various homeless people can be found muttering about voices in their head, and act all confused as you walk past them. While it may look like a case of crazy homeless people, it transpires that Hush, one of your targets, is conducting human experiments on them to test his neural relay machine by promising the homeless money, under the façade of giving them a home or better living by doing some experiments...and then discarding them if they do not meet his needs. Ironically, Hush is only a target for pragmatic reasons as he's a part of the dual-authentication procedure required to access the ICA Archives [[spoiler: required to whistle blow the ICA]], but everything you see and get told about him paints him in a truly detestable light, and totally has it coming.

* ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' has a sidequest in which you reclaim [[MobDebt the various outstanding debts as part of the Sun On Yee's rackets]]. One mission involves collecting from the owner of a massage parlor[[note]]A legit one, not one of the [[HappyEndingMassage brothels you can visit]].[[/note]]. The owner refuses to pay up, and flat out tells Wei that he has friends in the police department, so going shiatsu on his face isn't an option. Wei instead goes around, finds some drunken homeless men, and pays them ten bucks each to "be themselves" (read:very gross) in the parlor and to the masseuse's customers. All of a sudden, the owner changes his tune real quick and pays what he owes.

* In ''VideoGame/Hitman3'' Chongqing level "End of an Era", various homeless people can be found muttering about voices in their head, and act all confused as you walk past them. While it may look like a case of crazy homeless people, it transpires that Hush, one of your targets, is conducting human experiments on them to test his neural relay machine by promising the homeless money, under the façade of giving them a home or better living by doing some experiments...and then discarding them if they do not meet his needs. Ironically, Hush is only a target for pragmatic reasons as he's a part of the dual-authentication procedure required to access the ICA Archives [[spoiler: required to whistle blow the ICA]], but everything you see and get told about him paints him is a truly detestable light, and totally has it coming.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Canting Crew repeatedly find themselves bribed to do odd jobs across the books -- mostly those jobs are "[[BegoneBribe please be somewhere else]]". In ''Literature/TheTruth'' William ends up using them to hawk the first run of the ''Ankh-Mopork Times'', using them to sell newspapers because they're the first and best available to try out this new thing.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}: The Canting Crew repeatedly find themselves bribed to do odd jobs across the books -- mostly those jobs are "[[BegoneBribe please be somewhere else]]". In ''Literature/TheTruth'' William ends up using them to hawk the first run of the ''Ankh-Mopork Times'', using them to sell newspapers because they're the first and best available to try out this new thing.

Success varies, especially dependent on how functional the CrazyHomelessPeople (already almost AlwaysMale) are capable of acting. If the payer has ill intentions toward the homeless person, the target could end up as a DisposableVagrant.

* The Creator/{{Lifetime}} movie ''Film/PsychoDaughter''. Mentally ill 18-year-old group home resident Samantha has stolen the identity of her roommate Danica and escaped after Danica's birth mother Kate (who gave her up for adoption) contacted her. After "Danica" meets Kate and Kate offers to let her stay at her house, Kate asks to speak with the director of the group home to help arrange things. Obviously not wanting Kate to know that she's not really Danica, Samantha gives Kate the number for a burner phone, then recruits a homeless woman to pose as the group home director. But, the trope ends up getting [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]], because Samantha didn't think the homeless woman was convincing enough in her portrayal of a group home director, so she doesn't pay the woman the money (but Kate was still fooled anyway).

* ''TabletopGames/{{Shadowrun}}'': '[[EveryoneHasTheirPrice Bribing a nearby]] [[OffTheGrid SINless]]' is a very common tactic for Shadowrunners who do runs in areas where the homeless are common: With the right amount of ''nuyen'' (or some drugs) they can provide anything from [[WeNeedADistraction a distraction at a vital point]], local info, letting you surreptitiously scout out a location without tipping the locals off to the fact that some black ops mercenaries are casing out the joint, a cheap alibi, or access to someone's squat in order to lie low after making your escape. Considering people below the poverty line make up the majority of the population in large sections of the Sixth World and petty crime is rampant, most people consider them BeneathNotice.

* One incident in 2020 had Creator/JohnnyDepp's security paying a homeless man [[https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12143145/johnny-depp-security-pay-homeless-man-tacos-find-phone/ three tacos, chips, and £335]] to get the star's phone back after it was hurled off a balcony during a fight with Amber Heard.

'''Hobo (pointing):''' Sure did, [[VerbalTic man]], he even gave me 20 bucks to tell you he went that way!
'''Goon:'''And which way ''did'' he go?
'''Hobo:''' Ah, man, he didn't pay me to tell you that.

'''Homeless Guy #1:''' Uh, that's very nice, but I think what you probably need are, like, some psycho, out-of-control homeless guys?
'''Homeless Guy #2:''' Yeah, we're more the broken, spiritless, I've-lost-the-will-to-live type homeless guys.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Played with in Chapter 129. Momoha, who lives in a tent at the school where she works, gets decked with a stack of yen notes by Hahari to not watch a horse race serving free sake. The bribe comes about not because she's homeless, but so that she doesn't give into her hedonism during their date with Rentarou.

-->'''Goon:''' Did you see someone run past here?
-->'''Hobo (pointing):''' Sure did, [[VerbalTic man]], he even gave me 20 bucks to tell you he went that way!
-->'''Goon:'''And which way ''did'' he go?
-->'''Hobo:''' Ah, man, he didn't pay me to tell you that.
-->''(The goons run off in the other direction, then Rubine's brother emerges from behind the hobo's pile of junk.)''

* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', the boys pay a homeless man (entitled "Mr. Homeless Guy") ten dollars to help them sneak into the Canadian R-rated movie ''[[ShowWithinAShow Asses of Fire]]''.

* In the 90s Creator/NormMacDonald film ''Film/DirtyWork'', [=MacDonald's=] character Mitch tries to bribe some homeless men into disrupting the theater owned by the BigBad. They initially refuse, saying they're more the beaten down by life, sad sort of homeless people rather than crazy disruptive homeless people. Mitch simply increases the bribe and they promptly start disrupting the theater.
-->'''Mitch:''' Hey, homeless guys! I'll tell ya what. I'll give you a dollar each if you'll go into this building here and run around yellin' and screamin'.
-->'''Homeless Guy #1:''' Uh, that's very nice, but I think what you probably need are, like, some psycho, out-of-control homeless guys?
-->'''Homeless Guy #2:''' Yeah, we're more the broken, spiritless, I've-lost-the-will-to-live type homeless guys.
-->'''Mitch:''' How about for two dollars? ''[cut to the homeless people running into the building screaming]''

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': An episode has Sheldon crazily demand that Penny get rid of a chair she found on the street and paid a homeless man to carry up the stairs because he's convinced it must be filthy.
* One ''Series/TheColbertReport'' skit has a school district in Alabama suspending students who paid a homeless man to walk the halls of their school pantsless.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': In [[Recap/CSIS1E8Anonymous "Anonymous"]], a SerialKiller pays a homeless man $100 to use the [=ATM=] card of one of his victims and then display a series of cue cards in front of the machine's security camera, knowing the authorities will view the footage to try to identify him.
* One ''Series/DrPhil'' episode has a woman claim that she paid a homeless man fifty dollars to strangle her and her sister.
* ''Series/DropTheDeadDonkey'': In "Drunk Minister", Damien is interrupted by a homeless man walking into shot whilst he is trying to do a piece on the economic woes facing the British High Streets. He tries to [[BegoneBribe bribe the man to go away]], only for the man to return with a crowd of other homeless men, forcing Damien to pay each and everyone of them to go away. Even so, it doesn't stop them from returning to the shot when the piece finally goes live, clearly thinking that he would bribe them once again to make them go away.

* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': Combined with DisposableVagrant in "Star Crossed", in which someone trying to break a drought uses an ancient sacrificial ritual. They use homeless people to avoid notice, and lure them to the sacrificial sites by pretending to hire them as cheap labour.
* ''Series/PrisonBreak'' has Lincoln paying a homeless man to assault LJ after the latter is released from the detention centre so that he could be taken to the hospital in order for them to be able to escape together.

* In a ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' episode, WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} clogs the toilet to a point where even an ''actual plumber'' refuses to clean up his mess. So, Mario turns to the homeless man he bumped into earlier that day to try and fix things. It backfires spectacularly, as the hobo is only interested in booze.