Campaign raises cash for homeless man who returned lost backpack

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.