Even the Lonely Planet forum site mentioned about this yogi guy in Bangkok:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1947064
His trick is the same.. to attract your attention, he may call out to you and say "Excuse me, I know you are a very lucky person". You may not believe him initially. He writes something on a piece of paper, crumple it and put in your hand. He then asks you a few "random" questions like "favourite number", "wish for yourself", etc and writes them on another piece of paper. He then takes the crumpled paper from you, puts it on his forehead and then return the paper to you. When you un-crumple the paper, the wordings match the answers you gave when the crumpled paper was in your hand. He then asks you for dollar notes to be put into the diary he is holding. He does not accept S$2 notes.. "at least a ten", after showing you a paper saying he prefers "$50, $100 or $150".
I was amazed at first, until a forumer suggested it could be a sleight of hand. When he took the crumpled paper from your hand, he made a switch. The other small piece of paper could be a carbon-copy below the paper when he was writing your "answers". Good thing I never carry big notes in my wallet, so I only extremely reluctantly but "with a happy heart" gave him $30 for his "entertainment trick". He gave me another "gift" of a small black stone which is supposed to absorb my "bad luck" and which I am supposed to "release into a river" 3 years later.
Why did I willingly part with my money? Like most human beings, I "want to believe" something special and extraordinary had just happened to me. My skepticism in me only allowed me to part with my $10 notes and no bigger. Yogi guy was lucky I had 3 pieces of $10 notes in my wallet.. there were days I only have $2 notes in my wallet.
Oh, it happened on Christmas Day 2011 at a not-so-crowded Selegie Road, in Singapore.
