Honesty used to be its own reward. But that was before the Internet.

Glen James, the homeless Boston man who found a backpack containing $2,400 in cash and $40,000 in traveller’s cheques and turned it over to police, has become a global celebrity.

Now, one of his new admirers has started an online fundraising campaign to help get James under a roof. In just 10 days, the site has collected more than $150,000 in donations from almost 6,000 individuals.

One hopes some of the generosity will spill over to other homeless people. There are 7,000 of them in Boston alone.