Homeless man lets customer who was turned away from restaurant borrow his shoes

A homeless man came to the rescue of a customer who was turned away from a restaurant because he wore sandals - by giving him his shoes.

Akbar Badshah was planning to celebrate his wife Romzin’s birthday at the Brazilian diner Fazenda in Manchester but he was denied entry because of his choice of footwear.

Having travelled from Queensbury, Yorkshire, Mr Badshah was forced to ask to borrow the shoes of a homeless man, named John.

He handed them over without hesitation and refused to take any money in return.

“We left the restaurant and I got chatting to this homeless fellow John on Deansgate, "he told the Manchester Evening News. "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.

“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."

After insisting Mr Badshah was able to give John £10 as a way of saying thank you. At that moment another man in his 50s walked past and gave John a further £50 note.

“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.”