I'm not really sure what that did for the homeless guy other than gain him a couple coins and a hat. He didn't learn how to play an instrument or obtain any other way of increasing his income. All it really did, in my opinion, was exploit his situation for the benefit of the students "helping" him. Given the number of camera angles there was at least one or two more folks in the crowd. I'm not sure this wasn't a complete set-up. With people filming in the crowd, how do we know the crowd was real (along with their donations)? For that matter, how do we know this "homeless" guy was real? It did seem somewhat convenient that he had an acoustically suitable bucket for the young percussionist (who forgot his instrument when his friends did not).
Too many unanswered questions for me to buy this at face value.