Homeless Man's Honesty Pays Back In Spades
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On February 9th, 2013, Kansas City resident Sarah Darling was walking along the street when she encountered a homeless man by the name of Billy Ray Harris. Instinctively, she reached into her change purse and emptied out all the coins she had into his collection can. Little did either realize that this small act of generosity, would change their lives forever.
It was not until the following morning that Sarah realized that not only had she given Billy all her change, but also, her platinum and diamond engagement ring that she had placed in her change purse earlier, because it had been bothering her finger. She and her husband Bill Krejci, rushed to the see if they could locate Billy, hoping against hope, that he would confirm her suspicion about where she had misplaced her precious jewelry. Not only was the homeless man in the same spot, he also, immediately returned the ring. The grateful couple paid him back for his honesty by emptying out their pockets of all the cash they had - about $60USD.
However, Bill Krejci, a web designer felt as though he needed to do something more for this amazingly honest man especially, after the story went viral and hundreds of people reached out to see how they could help Billy. So on February 18th, he set up a special page for him on fundraising site Give Forward with a goal of raising $1,000USD in 90 days. In just four days, the donations have ballooned to over $85,000USD and there seems to be no end in sight yet.
If that is not enough, Billy is off the streets and currently living with an unnamed samaritan. And that's not all - Thanks to all the media coverage, he was reunited with his older brother, Edwin Harris who he has been unable to locate for 27 years. Not only did the two talk for 45 minutes on the phone, but Edwin is also planning to come get Billy in mid-March and take him to his home in Lubbock,Texas.
All this good fortune just because Billy did the right thing - Return something that did not rightfully belong to him. Honesty is definitely the best policy! If you want to donate some of your allowance to better the life of Billy Ray Harris or just keep up to date with how this heartwarming story ends, check out giveforward.com/billyray.
Resources: newsyahoo.com, nydaily, huffingtonpost.com
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578 Comments
- NickA over 11 yearsThis is nice
- aliciaover 11 yearsI think it is very amazing that he did this thing. He could have pawned it and have got a ton of money for it. It's nice to know that there are some people who are still out there that are really good people. Also, its very nice of the people that owned the ring to raise the money for the homeless man. In the end he did a great thing and he got rewarded for that.
jaystar09over 11 yearsPREETTY ROKIN DUDE!!!!!!!!!- Paigeeover 11 yearsThat guy is so nice If I was the girl I would really thank him.
- Florencioover 11 yearsI think that this was very nice of the homeless man. Most homeless men would have seen the ring and went to sell or pawn it, but not Billy, he waited for the couple to return, and he gave the ring back to them. Honesty count in life. I mean look what happened to Billy. In just 4 days he made 85,000 dollars and he tracked down his brother, that he hasn't seen in 27 years. This was really nice of Billy. I think that I would do the same.
- dipathriover 11 yearsThats the magic of honesty!!!!!!
- Skyover 11 yearsI think this article was very interesting!! A man in the streets would probably keep the ring and exchange it for money!! But his honesty paid off and he earned much more money than he could've had
- 12345678910over 11 yearsthats soooooooo nice of him
- Mihretover 11 yearsThis was so sad.:( I am so(happliey) not a word lol. Happy that they helped him get money. So nice of him too. :)
- Hailsover 11 yearsThat was SOOOOO nice of the girl and SOOOOOO nice how he gave the ring back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was like a miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also AWESOME!!!!!!