According to the Tehran Times, Haji would eat porcupine meat, smoke cigarettes and pipes filled with animal excrement, and believed cleanliness would make him ill.
His diet consisted of rotten meat and unsanitary water drunk from an old oil can, according to the Iranian news agency, IRNA.
Attempts to bathe him or provide him with clean water made him sad. But villagers persuaded Haji to take a bath a few months ago.