The Iranian hermit known as Amou Haji (Image: Supplied)

Look, if it ain’t broke…

The news broke this morning that a hermit from the Iranian village of Dejgah, known as “Amou Haji” (a Farsi term of endearment for an older man) has died at the age of 94, a few months after what was reportedly his first bath in nearly 70 years.

Haji gained the nickname “the world’s dirtiest man” (and news curio status) over decades of (literal) soap-dodging. He was of the belief that soap and water would make him ill — and maybe we’re forced to concede that the guy knew what he was talking about. He lived to nearly 100 eating largely meat (porcupine was his favourite), drinking unsanitary water from an old oil can, and sucking back up to five cigs at a time.

He never married — despite dubiously sourced tabloid stories on his search for love — and had no known family. But local villagers apparently viewed him with affection, and reportedly built him a cinderblock shack so he would stop sleeping in a hole in the ground. Indeed, apart from the “broken heart” that apparently led him to live in the wilderness as a young man, doctors who examined him earlier this year found him in good health, and villagers reported him to be relatively happy.

Vale to a real one.