Matt Busbice has earned millions of dollars in the business world.
But the dollar he was given 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.
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.
Trending:
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.
Would you give your last dollar to someone in need?
“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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