A nice, happy story.

Donations pour in for homeless man who returned diamond ring

By Dana Ford, CNN
February 23, 2013 -- Updated 1140 GMT (1940 HKT)

Talk about good karma.

Well-wishers from around the world are opening their wallets to a homeless man who returned a diamond engagement ring to its rightful owner, after she accidentally dropped it in his donation cup.

"I actually feel like I'm especially lucky to have this ring now. I loved it before. I loved it so much, but I love it so much more now. I feel like it has such great karma," Sarah Darling told CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien."

Darling, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, said she was devastated when she realized she'd lost her ring.
She almost never takes it off, but it was giving her a bit of a rash so she did, zipping it in her coin purse for safe keeping.
Later, she absentmindedly emptied the contents of that purse into the collection cup of Billy Ray Harris, who is homeless and lives under a bridge in Darling's hometown.

It wasn't until the next day that she realized her ring was gone.

"It was horrible. It was such a feeling of loss," Darling said. "It meant so much to me beyond just the financial value."

She went back to look for Harris, but he was gone. She returned the next day and found him.

"I asked him ... 'I don't know if you remember me, but I think I gave you something that's very precious to me,' and he says, 'Was it a ring? Yeah, I have it, I kept it for you,'" Darling said.

She was floored.

To show their appreciation, Darling and her husband set up an online fundraiser for Harris. The donations and praise have poured in.
"In life what goes around comes around... Billy - your sweet actions, despite being in dire straits yourself, prove that there is humility in the world... you are one shining example. Lots of love from across the pond," wrote Chris and Mel, from Brentwood, England, on the giveforward.com site, which is collecting money. They gave $20.

"I am from Singapore and I greatly am grateful for your honesty!" wrote Ophelia Wong Zen-na, who gave $10.
Brian Paul also gave $10.

"If I wasn't jobless I would give much more, but felt compelled to do something. Billy Ray do your best to become what you've always dreamed you could be. Its never too late. God Bless and thanks for never loosing your character in tough times," he wrote.
So far, in just about a week, more than 3,200 donations have been made, totaling close to $88,000. The money will be given to Harris at the end of a 90-day campaign.

CNN affiliate KCTV caught up with Harris and asked him how he felt about all the attention he's attracted since returning the ring.
"I like it, but I don't think I deserve it," he said.

"What I actually feel like is, 'what has the world come to when a person who returns something that doesn't belong to him and all this happens?'" Harris said.

But for her part, Darling said she is just grateful for what he did. Many others, she said, would have kept the ring, or sold it.
"I really just hope that my kind of flightiness in that moment leads to something really good for him," she said.

edition.cnn.com/2013/02/22/us/missouri-d...index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Gilly wrote:
Yeah wasn't a big deal tbh. With all that money he can either start a business or drown in booze

It's a bit sad that it is a big deal to find someone who's honest. I think there are plenty who'd have taken advantage of her error, even if they weren't destitute themselves.

Nice bloke, showing capitalism up for what it is.

Man unhoused due to the system returns something that the system deems of value then rewards him for that but doesn't house him for being a human!

some day he'll be able to buy that bridge, and live on top of it.

oioioi wrote:
I don't really understand why you say that.

He returned the thing of value to the individual woman who'd been kind to him - not the system. And it's individuals who have rewarded him with donations as a token of their gratitude.

Would he of given the ring back if the women had not come looking for him? For a couple of days he kept it in his pocket .

foonclown wrote:
How would he have known how to find her though? He could tell it was valuable, but he didn't go & try to pawn or sell it.

Gilly wrote:
Sorry, I missed this.

My point was he found a lump of carbon.

For some reason it's more valuable than other lumps of carbon (as deemed by society).

Therefore he was rewarded handsomely for returning these valued carbon molecules back to the market rather than just basking in their valuable shinyness.

oioioi wrote:
OK well that's one way of looking at it I suppose. It suits me to see it as one act of kindness (the lady giving a donation to someone in need) followed an act of honesty & decency (the chap returning the ring) and equally importantly, those qualities being something that a lot of people were moved by, in a cold, greedy world where we almost expect to get shafted at every turn.

But and put a negative spin on it, Oi, Foon & Andy, you set of miserable gits!

Gilly wrote:
Its not so much negative...theres nothing the homeless guy did that was negative. Its the media circus that was negative.
Thats Americans for you though...

andyh wrote:
'Media circus,' is a colourful, and unnecessarily negative, turn of phrase, isn't it! Still, that's the miserable English for you...

Gilly wrote:
How is it unnecessarily negative? Or colourful actually?
Would you prefer media wankfest?

andyh wrote:
Yes, that's appropriate for the coverage of a story about people displaying kindness to each other.

Do continue with the bile - forgive me if I bow out though, as your determination to be negative is getting on my nerves.

Gilly wrote:
lol

Has the homeless bloke now got a home?

How kind!

if hes got 88k he probably will have

I doubt the woman whose ring he returned, or the people who gave him donations were able to treat him to a home (just as they probably had no direct involvement in him being made homeless initially). That was what the story was about btw. However, I don't know the current value of the donations, so who knows.

batou wrote:
lol