Boy Gives His Last Dollar to Man He Thought Was Homeless - Everything Changes When Man's Identity Is Revealed
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Matt Busbice has earned millions of dollars in the business world.
But the dollar he was given on Good Friday was worth far more than a buck.
“I haven’t had that much faith in humanity in a very long time,” Busbice said of the incident in which he was mistaken for a homeless man, according to CBS on May 3.
The 42-year-old, who owns sporting-goods store BuckFeather in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was rousted from bed by a fire alarm.
There was no fire, but he was wide awake, and so, in mismatched clothes, he decided to get a cup of coffee.
This is America: 9-yr-old Kelvin Ellis was out with his father on Good Friday. He saw a man standing outside and tried to give him a $1 because he thought he was homeless.
Turns out the man was actually a millionaire entrepreneur!❤️🇺🇸✝️ pic.twitter.com/1GMKfnajke
— Kory Yeshua (@KoryYeshua) May 2, 2024
Before entering the shop, he stopped on its patio to do his morning prayer.
Enter 9-year-old Kelvin Ellis Jr.
“And I started to slowly open my eyes, and there’s a kid coming at me, about my height,” Busbice said.
Ellis had a fist clenched. Busbice was ready for trouble. Instead, Ellis opened his fist to give Busbice a $1 bill.
“And I go, ‘What?'” Busbice said.
“‘If you’re homeless, here’s a dollar,'” Ellis recalls that he said.
“I always wanted to help a homeless person, and I finally had the opportunity,” Ellis said.
The dollar, a reward for good grades, was all the money Ellis had. Busbice stayed in touch and later let Ellis have a shopping spree at BuckFeather that included a new bike.
Ellis said he did not hand away his dollar for a reward, but for “joy, because I helped someone.”
“Give something away, and you feel like you’ve got a lot of things from it,” the 9-year-old said.
“If you give, you’re actually going to get more out of that,” Busbice said, per CBS.
“I couldn’t grasp that as a kid. And if we can spread that around, everything changes.”
Busbice has a net worth of about $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
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