Or a homeless man worth knowing.
Charles Moore
With a strong sense of values, this homeless man put others' needs ahead of his own.
By Kimberly Winston
Down and out does not mean dishonest and greedy. That’s the lesson in the actions of Charles Moore, a 59-year-old Detroit homeless man who last July dug into a garbage can for returnable bottles and came up with $21,000 in U.S. savings bonds.
Moore, homeless for the first time after losing his job as a roofer, found the bonds in a white envelope. But instead of running off with his windfall, he took the bonds to a local homeless shelter and turned them in.
Moore said it never entered his mind to take the bonds, whose face value was $9,000, and sell them on the street. “They were not mine,” he told Beliefnet. “And I knew whoever they belonged to would miss them.”
Actually, they did not. The widow of the owner was unaware of their existence. When the bonds were returned to her, her son tipped Moore $100.
“My mother taught me to do the right thing,” Moore, who grew up in Ypsilanti, Mich. said. “Everything I have learned coming up, I attribute to my mother. She was real religious. I was brought up in the church and I was just taught to do the right thing.” The fact that the owners would not have missed the bonds, “didn’t make any difference to me,” Moore said.
“My mother taught me to do the right thing,” Moore, who grew up in Ypsilanti, Mich. said. “Everything I have learned coming up, I attribute to my mother. She was real religious. I was brought up in the church and I was just taught to do the right thing.” The fact that the owners would not have missed the bonds, “didn’t make any difference to me,” Moore said.
Nor did it matter to him that they tipped him only $100. “I know a lot of people say I wouldn’t have gave them bonds back, he didn’t offer you but $100,” Moore said. “But I wasn’t looking for $100. My purpose was to give them back to the rightful owner. That was the bottom line.”
You can find all the details on the Charles Moore story at the link below. Vote for him for the Most Inspiring Person of 2006 Award run by Beliefnet.com.
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In June Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in the world, announced he would give away most of his money to the the foundation of the world's richest man, Bill Gates. Buffett's donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest philanthropic gift in U.S. history....
Last July, Charles Moore, a 59-year-old Detroit homeless man dug into a garbage can for returnable bottles and came up with $21,000 in U.S. savings bonds. Moore, homeless for the first time after losing his job as a roofer, knew what the bonds were, because in better times he had owned some himself. But instead of running off with his windfall, he took the bonds to a local homeless shelter and turned them in....
Meet the next two candidates for Most Inspiring Person of the Year, and vote for your choice.
From Beliefnet.com
Read more at the link above, in the article.
Charles Moore is nominated for his honesty and strong sense of personal ethics, which remained uncompromised even in a time of great personal need.
"The next time you are walking down the street, that person you are brushing aside as, oh, this homeless person, that could someday be the person who gives you a helping hand," Howse told Beliefnet. "You just don't know who an angel is. That's why you help the least of these."
I am also glad to hear, after the dinky reward, that people pitched in to help this man out.
People gave him gifts of money, clothes, food, and even returnable bottles. Also, an apartment, car.
He is now enrolled in a job program & is learning computers in hopes to owning his own home repair business sometime in the future!!!!
This is one good example of someone who did the right thing, and he was rewarded by karma.
If we had more Charles Moore's in the world, it would certainly be more civilized.
I think the 100.00 reward is a joke.
Its the deeds of others who heard what Charles Moore did, in donating things he needed that was his karma reward, not the hundred bucks.
keep up the honesty in america