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Honesty Really Can Pay
By JLP | July 25, 2006
Here’s an interesting story I saw on the MSN website about a homeless guy who found $21,000 worth of bond certificates in a trash can. He turned them into a homeless shelter. The owner of the bonds gave the homeless man a $100 reward and after news reports of the homeless man’s honesty, he received nearly $4,000 in cash and gifts from various individuals.
Honesty really does pay.
Topics: Miscellaneous | 6 Comments »
July 26th, 2006 at 1:47 am
I heard about this story, but didn’t hear about the $4,000 he got. Thank God others stepped up to the plate because I think the original $100 “reward” he got from the family was incredibly cheap!
July 26th, 2006 at 6:25 am
Not to be cold or anything, but of the homeless people I’ve been around – if you gave them cash, that wouldn’t necessarily help them but could actually hurt, allowing them to feed the demons that got ‘em where they are. Let’s hope the “gifts” included things like a place to stay, food on the table, patient guidance and counseling and even affection. And not to make excuses for the cheap family, but there might be more to the story – imagine they had a child who needed an expensive operation that they couldn’t afford. Now imagine a homeless man giving them the money. Excellent. But maybe not – I tend to be over sentimental. Still a neat story.
July 26th, 2006 at 8:45 am
Yeah, the $100 is pretty low.. they could have tried to help him in some more material way like helping him get a job if they couldn’t afford to give him any more money. People always think that money is the best reward for everything but in this situation just giving him some help in non monetary ways might have been a lot better.
July 26th, 2006 at 9:38 am
I’d be curious to see what The Homeless Guy (http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com/) has to say about it – I’ll see if I can’t send it to him, if he hasn’t already blogged it, that is…
July 26th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Of course the answer to every question is, “it depends.”
That the homeless guy said he would use the money to find an apartment is very encouraging. But, in the real world, it is not so much the amount of money you have at any one point, but it’s the constant, dependable, flow of money, that determines “success.” Just look at all those people who have won the lottery and are now broke and perhaps in debt.
I understand that not all of the gifts were money, but he should still be able to get himself several months in an apartment with the cash. THAT is the opportunity he, and every homeless person needs. BUT, the big question is, will he be able to take the next step and find solid employment , that will give him the flow of cash he needs, during those months so that he can keep the apartment and maintain his independence. Since he is currently homeless, the odds are that he does not currently have the internal resources to do so. Either he never really had those resources, (perhaps a better word would be “skills”) or he has lost his motivation to use the skills he once had. Either way, he must find those skills and begin to impliment them very soon, or he’ll end up back on the streets. Getting an apartment with the money is the right start because it will get him out of the homeless environment. But after that, he needs to get connected to some kind of community that will give him the support he needs to make the other personal changes necessary. No one can do it alone. Without the motivation that comes from friends/family/community, to make those changes, a homeless person will fail every time.
If this guy is a junkie, then he might even die of an overdose of 4000 bucks worth of high. Or if he’s not ready to rejoin society, he will enjoy breakfast and lunch at mc donalds for the next year or so, but will have nothing to show for it when it’s all over.
To change a homeless person’s life, so that he leaves homelessness for good, money is necessary, but money alone is not enough. People are ok with giving money to solve a problem, but how many people are really ok with giving of themselves? People have been throwing money at homelessness for a long time, but that hasn’t changed anything. Perhaps it’s time people changed how they dealt with the problem of homelessness.
July 26th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Fyi: per the article it was the SON of the bondowner who gave the $100 reward…
Now for my own lost and found: last weekend after my sister’s anniversary party (in her hometown) I had slipped my camera into a birthday gift bag that was intended for my son. While waiting for my husband to get our car, I set the bag down by a park bench, started talking to some folks, and well, the rest is history. Yup, the following morning I asked by husband to retrieve the giftbag from the trunk…voila! No gift bag. I hate that feeling of panic! Anyway, my sister searched around the bench and garbage cans, I called the restaurant and the police lost and found dept., put a “lost” ad in the local paper, etc. Since I’m not the type to sit still, I made flyers and around lunch took my boys back to the scene of stupidity and taped them to garbage cans, posted them on Starbuck’s bulletin board, etc.
After going home and continuing to fret, I got a call around 5pm. One guy from the city’s contracted cleaning dept. had found the bag the previous evening on top of a garbage dumpster (within one hour of my leaving it) and had noticed my flyers that afternoon. My son’s birthday cards and a book were missing, but the rest of his presents and my camera were left inside. The finder did admit he opened the wrapping paper on the presents b/c he was curious…That part still puzzles me, but I’m just grateful to get the camera back. Thankfully, I had just burned a disk (it had a year’s worth of important family pictures), but still I would have been $$orry to lose it (and have to replace it.) I did have an address sticker w/my name and number on the camera, but he admitted he didn’t notice it. And yes, I did give reward money…
Moral: there are honest people still out there, but don’t be stupid after a party…(and put name/t/p stickers on your expensive stuff, just in case!)