Nine-Year-Old Gives His Last Dollar To Homeless Man, Turns Out He Was a Millionaire

In a recent heartwarming incident that is sure to restore your faith in humanity, a nine-year-old boy in Baton Rouge Louisiana mistook a millionaire as homeless and gave him the only dollar he had, as per WBRZ.

This happened when 42-year-old Matt Busbice left his house in a rush one morning after he heard a fire alarm. Thankfully, he found that there was no fire and later headed to a cafe where he placed an order and stepped outside to do his morning prayer.

This is where nine-year-old Kelvin Ellis Jr. approached him and gave him a dollar. 

"'I said, 'Excuse me, sir, are you homeless? Because if you are, here's a dollar,'" Ellis Jr. recalled, adding that he had always wanted to help a homeless person, via CBS.

"I had money, it wasn't that much — but it could still help him get something," he said.

Hearing this, Busbice had tears in his eyes, he hugged the child, and decided to reward him for his kindness. Busbice later told CBS News that he hadn't had "that much faith in humanity in a very long time."

Pleased by his kind gesture, he later bought Ellis Jr. breakfast and took him for a shopping trip to his sporting goods store where he gave him 40 seconds to choose whatever he liked. As per the reports, Ellis Jr. got a few items including a brand new bike. 

As for the nine-year-old, he had donated the only dollar he had earned by himself after securing good grades in his examination. Kelvin Ellis Jr. was not only rewarded by Busbice but also lauded by netizens who took to various social media platforms to praise him. "What a great kid and good on the guy. I bet they stay friends!" writes @OldSaltSouth in a post on X. 

Ellis Jr. tells CBS, that he felt joy as he helped someone. "Give something away, and you feel like you've got a lot of things from it," he added, while Busbice believed that if you give something, you get more out of it. "I couldn't grasp that as a kid. And if we can spread that around, everything changes," he added. 

As per reports, Busbice is a millionaire who built his fortune through a series of outdoor businesses and brands focused on the hunting industry. 

Homelessness shot up in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida destroyed homes and displaced residents throughout coastal Louisiana in August 2021. The state's homeless population spiked to never seen before levels. In 2022, Louisiana had an estimated 7,373 people experiencing homelessness, which was the 14th highest rate across the nation. 

However, since then the number of homeless people has declined as some have been moved into the state's expanded low-barrier homeless shelter in recent months, as per Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY of Greater New Orleans. From 2020 to 2022, the state has suffered the second-largest percentage increase in homelessness levels, up by a whopping 132.4%, as per the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.