When 14- year-old Ben Azarya from Kendal, Cumbria stopped to help a man pick up some paint cans that had fallen from his bag, he had no idea that he may have been assisting a famous masked street artist, known only to the public as Banksy. The man introduced himself as ‘Robin Banks,’ a name that has been linked to Banksy in the past, and awarded the teen with an autographed print of a famous Banksy painting of a flower thrower. Azarya’s parents have been advised to authenticate the unique autograph, which if real could be valued at around $30,000. If the signature proves genuine, not only will Azarya hold claim to the artist’s autograph, but also the first known sighting of Banksy without a mask.

So what does one have to do to win a $30,000 thank you from Banksy? Azarya recently told the NY Daily News that, “He was on the phone for most of the time talking to someone called AK47.

“He opened his rucksack and had a gas mask and spray paints inside. He got out a piece of paper and had colors marked on it of what he had been trying out and he dropped his colors.

“I picked them up for him and after that he started signing it in weird letters and numbers. He said ‘do you know who Robin Banks is?’

“I said no and he said ‘this will be worth about ($30,000) – have a good life, brother’.”

Ironically, even if the stranger had used the name “Banksy,”  it still might have been lost on his young good Samaritan. Azarya  later admitted that he had no idea who Banksy was until he began researching him on the Internet. Some of the renowned  street artist’s works have been sold for upwards of $1.5 million at auction.

Should the stranger turn out to be Banksy, then the teen’s description may turn out to be the world’s first of the man behind the mask. Azarya described him as,

“White, in his late 40s. He was wearing scruffy clothes and he had a black, fluffy hat which looked really old.

“He had a little jacket that didn’t go over his arms and jeans with paint on. He looked really wacky and had blonde hair and blue eyes.”

The teen has confirmed that if the print can be authenticated, he would definitely consider selling it to cash in on Banksy’s gratitude.