The Old Man

One day their was an old man sitting on a bench in the park. He wore a tattered coat that was made of rags. The man did not appear to have a lot of money, however, that was what he wanted everyone to think. In actual fact, the man was rich. He had so much money in the bank that he didn’t know what to do with it all.

Then one day, the man saw a little boy sitting on a swing. He was all by himself and the man noticed that the little boy was crying.

“Why are you crying?” asked the man.

“I am hungry,” said the boy. “I don’t have any money for food. My parents are both poor.”

“I see,” said the man, putting his hand to his chin and rubbing it.

The man looked long and hard at the boy. The boy did look hungry, thought the man to himself. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill.

“Here you go,” said the man. “Go get yourself something to eat.”

“Thank you,” said the boy, giving the man a hug.

“You are welcome,” said the man.

After the boy left, the man sat on the bench in the park, thinking about that poor little boy. He couldn’t get him off his mind.

“Nobody should go ever have to go hungry,” said the man to himself.

The man got up from the park bench and went to his bank. He spoke to the bank manager and informed him that he wanted to withdraw all of his money out of his account.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked the bank manager, a little uneasily.

“Yes, of course,” said the man. “I want to donate all of my money to local charities.”

“Why?” asked the bank manager. “Don’t you want to just leave it here to collect interest?”

“No,” said the man. “I want to withdraw this money right now. It is not doing me any good whatsoever and there are plenty of people in this city that could use it more than me.”

No matter what, the bank manager could not convince that man to keep his money in his account and he was very sad when he had to hand over all the money to the man.

The next morning, however, the bank manager received a call from a local newspaper. They wanted to do a story on the bank and how they had helped an old man help many people that were starving in the city. The bank manager was very pleased after that phone call, in fact he was so pleased, that he even donated some of his own money to the local charities.