Homeless Man Given $1000, Immediately Offers to Share the Money

This is Eric.

I met him last year when I worked in Newport News, Virginia. Almost every day, he rode his bike to the shopping center where my office was located.

Eric spent several hours per day sitting on the curb in the parking lot behind the coffee shop. He usually held signs that asked for money or food, depending on what his particular needs were that day.

I said hello to Eric every day, and often stopped to give him a few dollars. Sometimes I gave him food, bottles of water, or coffee.

One day I had a little extra time, and decided to go out and strike up a conversation with him. I asked him what his story was…where he slept at night, if he had any family in the area, and what kind of help he needed.

Eric said he’d been trying to find a job for a long time, and described the vicious cycle that tends to trap people who are homeless. He said that even fast food restaurants repeatedly turned him down for employment. Eric told me that one manager said, “Why would we hire a homeless man?” He explained that he was willing to work hard and just needed someone to give him a chance. She kicked him out of the restaurant.

I asked him if he stayed in shelters at night. He said that women and children are priorities (and said he agreed with that policy), so he usually slept outside. Eric often saved up money people gave him to stay in hotels when the weather was particularly harsh.

Sometimes he got lucky, and an especially generous stranger would offer to pay to put him in a hotel room for a night or two.

Eric always struck me as a kindhearted and caring man. He always expressed gratitude for even the smallest donation. He said hello to everyone who passed by. They often say the eyes are the window to the soul. Eric’s seemed to be filled with kindness and hope, in spite of his dire situation.

About a week ago, I started hearing people talk about a video of a homeless man who was given a winning lottery ticket for $1,000.

Today, after seeing it appear in my Facebook feed several times, I finally watched the video.

Imagine my surprise when I recognized the homeless man in the video.

“That’s Eric! THE Eric!”

YouTube prankster and magician Magic of Rahat had heard that Eric was “nice and respectable”, so he wanted to help him out.

Rahat approached Eric and told him he didn’t have any money to give him, but wanted to give him a lottery ticket instead.

But the lottery ticket wasn’t really a winner – and Rahat knew that. He asked a convenience store clerk to go along with his plan – which was to let Eric think he won $1,000.

Rahat and Eric went to the convenience store together to check the numbers.

Watch the video to see what happened next:

As soon as the clerk handed Eric the cash, he turned to Rahat and said “I would like to share it.”

“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I never, never had a friend, had somebody do what you just did back there,” Eric told Rahat.

Critics have asked Rahat why he didn’t just simply hand Eric the $1,000. To that, Rahat said:

“I wanted to create a moment of magic with him winning the lottery. I could’ve just went up to him and gave him $1000, but I wanted to do it in a unique way.”

Rahat has started a fundraising campaign to help Eric get back on his feet.

If you would like to donate, you can do so here: Eric’s Fundraising

Stories like these help restore a little of my faith in humanity. Is is easy to sit back and judge those who are less fortunate, and perhaps make assumptions about the choices that may have led them to their situation. But in reality, with the current state of the economy, any of us could end up homeless like Eric.

In the end, all we really have is each other.

In life you can never be too kind or too fair; everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load. When you go through your day expressing kindness and courtesy to all you meet, you leave behind a feeling of warmth and good cheer, and you help alleviate the burdens everyone is struggling with. – Brian Tracy