Former homeless man helped pay for Justin Bieber's lunch

Justin Bieber attends The 58th GRAMMY Awards. Photo / Getty

Justin Bieber was "so thankful" when a kind stranger bought his lunch for him after his card was declined.

Kody Christansen stepped in to foot the bill for the 22-year-old singer in a West Hollywood branch of Subway last Thursday (01.09.16), because he wanted to save the 'Sorry' singer the embarrassment of having to step out in front of waiting paparazzi to get an alternative means of payment.

Speaking to the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column, Kody said: "[Justin] put his card into the machine and it was declined. He said, 'I have to run out and get another card.' I decided to pay it for him to spare him the second trip out into the crush of about 20 photographers. I said, 'I got it.' And he asked if I was sure. He was so thankful."

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Proof of a random act of kindness. (Kinda wish the employee hadn't leaked the story, but since he did. Here is what really happened. Check my previous post. #justinbieber #belieber #randomactsofkindness #staystrong #dreambig @tmz @etonline @usweekly

A post shared by Kody Christiansen (@kodykitty) on Sep 1, 2016 at 5:44pm PDT

Kody - an actor who also works as a waiter in Soho - admitted that he was going to keep the encounter to himself out of "respect" for the 'Love Yourself' hitmaker, but when the news got out anyway he decided to open up.

He said: "I wasn't going to tell anyone out of respect for him ... I didn't want it to get out that he had his card declined."

The kind stranger also revealed that just one year previous to his encounter with the superstar, he was living on the streets in New York.

He claimed that he spent time living in "four or five homeless shelters" as a result of a drug and alcohol addiction he developed whilst trying to chase his acting career.

The former homeless man was in LA to sign copies of his recently released memoir 'Hollywood Heartbreak, New York Dreams', and he gave a copy of the tome to Justin.

Photo / Instagram

He said: "He was totally cool with me and took an interest in my book. I was living in a New York City homeless shelter a year ago, and now I'm buying one of the biggest stars in the world lunch."