Genuine homeless begging

So I was in town this morning and ended up walking Paul St more than once. There was a man begging with a sign saying homeless, don't want to paint stereotypes but wasn't Irish. 2nd time I passed him I saw 2 guards walking down Paul St and took no notice. I turned up French Church St and he rushed past myself and the Mrs, apologising for bumping into us as he stuffed his homeless sign into his backpack. Took me a minute to realise he was likely moving on in such a hurry because of the 2 garda approaching. Had me thinking, if he was genuinely homeless, would the guards be that interested, or more likely that he rushed off as he's known for being a professional at what he was doing?