Not Even a Penny

It was a Saturday in September 2013, in Boston, in the Dorchester neighbourhood.

In front of a store at the South Bay shopping centre, a backpack lay on the ground. Someone had left it behind.

Glen James picked it up.

He was 54. He had once been a file clerk at a Boston courthouse. Then he lost his job. Since then, he had lived in a shelter. He spent much of his days panhandling.

He opened the bag.

Inside were $2,400 in cash. And about $39,000 in traveller's cheques. And a passport.

Glen James alerted the police.

According to ABC News, the bag belonged to a student visiting from China. The police found its owner.

The following Monday, at police headquarters, Commissioner Ed Davis gave Glen James a citation. He praised his honesty.

Glen James did not want to talk to reporters. He preferred to write a few words, by hand. Even if he were desperate for money, he wrote, he would have kept nothing.

He also said, simply: "Good. It feels very good."

Far away, in Virginia, a 28-year-old man read his story. His name was Ethan Whittington. He did not know Glen James.

He wanted this man to get more than a pat on the back. So, a few hours later, he started an online fundraiser.

He thought he might raise a couple of hundred dollars.

Within a day, more than 2,000 people had given. Then 3,000. Then 4,000.

Three weeks later, there had been more than 6,000 donations. They topped $150,000. They came from the United States, Brazil, France, Australia.

One Thursday in October, Ethan Whittington came to Boston. For the first time, he met Glen James. He shook his hand. Then he hugged him.

For him, he said, the story restored faith in the human race.

Glen James's sister found a lawyer to put the money in a trust. Glen James found an apartment. He looked into job training programs.

What he had written fit in one sentence:

A man who had almost nothing gave everything back. And thousands of people who did not know him gave something back in turn. Ubuntu would recognize this movement: a person's worth is not measured by what they own, but by what they pass on.

It had all started with a bag left in front of a store.

A man could have kept it.

He gave it back. And the world gave back to him.