History Main / BribingTheHomeless

* ''Film/MyManGodfrey'': The two sisters pay a homeless man $5 to get him to show up at their party.

* ''WebAnimation/TheMostPopularGirlsInSchool'': In "Justice and a Slim Jim", this is discussed when Shay van Buren wonders if they can pay a homeless man to buy some Zinfandel wine (which she and her sisters are too young to purchase, not helping in the slightest that their mother Jayna is an extreme LadyDrunk) at a convenience store for them. The idea is quickly scrapped when Deandra decides to literally [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique take things into her own hands]] (well, her ''robot'' hand).

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 (a more likely occurence if you're part of a group of FreeRangeChildren), or even fix something around the house, but that's not even remotely possible by your own self.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': One episode has Veronica paying a homeless man to fish a plastic easter egg (that had been used a rape device) [[DumpsterDive out of a dumpster]].

* ''Film/{{Se7en}}'': After Detectives Somerset and Mills find [[SerialKiller John Doe's]] apartment with the aid of an illegal FBI program they're not even supposed to know exists, they pay off a homeless woman to pretend she called in a tip about Doe so that they'd have probable cause to have been there.

* ''Film/{{Se7en}}'': After Detectives Somerset and Mills find [[SerialKiller John Doe's]] apartment with the aid of an illegal FBI program they're not even supposed to know exists, they pay off a homeless woman to pretend she called in a tip about Doe so that they'd have probable cause to have been there.

* ''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.

* Are you a member of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'s Thieves Guild? If so, one of the easiest ways to get key info is bribing the homeless. If not, they can be bribed to tell you where to do to sign up. It's downplayed, however, as there are alternative methods (such as using the speech minigame or casting a Charm spell).

* Are you a member of [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'s Thieves Guild? If so, one of the easiest ways to get key info is bribing the homeless. It's downplayed, however, as there are alternative methods (such as using the speech minigame or casting a Charm spell).

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s1e7_pacifica_bribe.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': It's heavily implied that the test subjects for Xanatos' funded experiments, before they were turned into the mutates, were homeless people who were coerced into agreeing to do "lab work"... [[KidnappedForExperimentation without being told what was ''really'' going on]].

* ''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 composed of homeless people [[PragmaticAdaptation due to a marked decline in the street urchin population]].

* {{Subverted}} in ''Film/JohnWickChapter2''. John drops a gold coin in front of a homeless man in a subway station to hide among his belongings from the assassins pursuing him. When the assassins approach, the vagrant suddenly stops muttering gibberish and shoots them both dead, because he's actually part of the Bowery King's mafia.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': One episode has Veronica paying a homeless man to fish a plastic easter egg (that had been used a rape device) [[DumpsterDiving out of a dumpster]].