Call it a Haight Street miracle: Some homeless youths come across a stolen bag of cash on the sidewalk and, defying all expectations, return every cent to the rightful owner. This is not some fanciful utopian dream of what might one day be, or even a heady flashback to the peaceful hippie days of yore — rather, KRON 4 reports it's a very real occurrence that went down this past Friday on a street best known for obnoxious panhandling, pot-selling, and sometimes ill-kept animals.

We can now apparently add another descriptor to the list: Good Samaritans.

According to Jim Siegel, who for the past 40 years has owned and operated Distractions (a Haight Street purveyor of the weird and vintage), he was working in his shop when someone told him that a man had entered the store's back office. “I hadn’t noticed him come in and they said 'no we think he’s in your backroom,' ” Siegel told the channel.

And so Siegel ran into the office, where the safe is kept, only to discover a man holding a bag of the store's cash. "This is my turf," Siegel says he told the would-be robber. "You’re not going to mess with me on Haight Street.” In response, the shopkeeper says the man punched him in the face.

A brawl quickly ensued. "[I] Put him in a big bear hug and we started wrestling and made a lot of damage in my office, then we, right outside my office door, we sell bongs for smoking marijuana, but they’re all made of glass and we were wrestling and we banged into the counter of bongs and knocked a lot of bongs over,” he explained.

Fearing that further prolonging the fisticuffs could lead to more store damage, Siegel allowed the thief to exit the building. However he gave chase — yelling and screaming for someone to call 911 the entire time.

At some point during the hot pursuit the robber dropped all of the money on Ashbury Street — all of it — and you can bet your bottom dollar that the street kids of the Haight quickly picked it all up. And then, in a truly shocking move, they returned the stolen money to Siegel. “I was very impressed, everybody brought every cent of the money back to the store, so I was very grateful for the people in the Haight for helping me and returning the money, especially since many of them are less fortunate and they did the right thing and brought the money back,” he told the channel.

Interestingly, Distractions may have not been the thief's first target. Hoodline reports that the same man was spotted trying to make his way into the offices of neighboring vintage store Held Over. But before he could get up to any thieving, an employee spotted the man and kicked him out. It was then that he reportedly went to Distraction.

And skeptical readers take note: If Haight Street kids returning stolen money isn't enough to renew your faith in humanity, then you might still appreciate the next bit. It seems that the thief dropped his cell phone during the chase, and even though he managed to escape at the time, officers are now in possession of the mobile device.

Related: Local Vintage Camera Store Robbed, Confused Owner Says 'We Can't Even Get People To Buy This Stuff'