Poverty and the homeless have been a challenging issue for ages, both in the more and the less developed countries. Some say that financial need, inability to satisfy basic needs in life, constant struggling to get out of the vicious circle of poverty and long-term life beyond the standards turn people into animals; make them criminals, murderers and thieves; dishonest, envious, greedy and immoral. Sure, there were cases of killings over €5 banknote or a bottle of wine, people robbing a person who brings them food in times of floods, beggars pretending to have dysfunctional limbs just to get more money, etc. That is why every story of pure honesty among the poor warms my heart.

A nice example might be that of a Czech homeless man who, in spite of his apparent ability to use some more money, did not keep money that was not his. Last year, he found 58,000 CZK (about €2,300 with a current exchange rate, while the average gross monthly salary is less than €1,000) in a garbage can while looking for something useful. You might guess he would keep the money (and perhaps spend most of it on alcohol and some unnecessarily expensive stuff, like some would do). However, he decided to bring all of it to a police station. “To keep boots, clothes, all right. But money – you have to hand it in,” he said to policemen. As a reward, he was shortly given food tickets amounting to approx. €47 – by the town mayor himself – and later also 10 % of the amount, which is to be given to everyone who finds money and hands it in to the police, by law. As the owner of the money was not found in legally given time, the money (90 % of the original amount) became a property of the town and recently was used for buying several wheelchairs and other special vehicles for local social care facility.

To present the darker side of the story: after some media coverage of the issue, different local inhabitants threatened and beat the man. They wanted him to confess officially he had stolen the money from them particularly, not found it. The man had to be protected by the police for some time and spent some other time hiding in the woods. Now the whole issue is over, he can finally walk the streets like before.

Hopefully, his honesty will help him further in his life.

Sources: tyden.cz, lidovky.cz, blesk.cz

Photo: author