When philanthropist Kenneth Behring passed through the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990’s, he suddenly noticed that his wallet had gone missing. His assistant said anxiously, “Maybe you lost your wallet during your morning walk through the slums in Berkeley. What can we do now?”
Behring reluctantly said: “We can only wait for the person who picked up my wallet to contact us”
Two hours later Behring’s assistant told Behring disappointedly: “Well, let’s not waste our time waiting for someone living in the slums to return your wallet. We should not have hoped for much from these people at all.”
Behring said calmly: “No, I still want to wait and see”
The assistant was puzzled: “The person who picked up your wallet could have contacted us easily as there are business cards in your wallet. It only takes a few minutes to make a call. We have been waiting the whole afternoon. Seems like the person who picked up the wallet had no intention of returning it to you.
Behring insisted that he would continue to wait. Day turned to night and suddenly, the phone rang. The person who called was the person who picked up Behring’s wallet. He wants Behring to pick up his wallet at Kata Street.
Behring’s assistant muttered: “Could this be a trap? Maybe they want to threaten or blackmail us?”
Behring ignored his assistant and quickly drove to Kata Street. When they arrived, a boy in tunic walked towards them and in his little hands was Behring’s lost wallet. Quickly Behring’s assistant snatched the wallet and counted the money inside. He was surprised that not a single note was missing.
“Sir, could I request for a little money?” The boy said sheepishly.
After hearing those words, Behring’s assistant laughed: “See, I knew it…” Before he could finish his sentence, Behring interrupted his assistant smiled asked: “How much do you want?”
“Only a dollar.” The boy replied sheepishly. “I have been looking for a public phone for a long time and when I finally found one, I did not have any money on me so I had to borrow a dollar from the shop owner to make this call. Now I need that dollar to return the money to him.”
After hearing the boy’s explanation, Behring’s assistant was ashamed of himself.
Behring was so touched that he gave the boy a hug
Immediately Behring changed his existing charity plan. Behring invested his money in several schools in Berkeley and these school’s purpose was to educate children living in the slums.
During the opening ceremony, Behring said: “We must not assume that every person out there is greedy or selfish. We need to make room and give every person an opportunity to prove that they have pure and kind hearts. People with these kind souls are worth investing in”
