Mấy hôm rày, xem TV, nghe radio, đọc báo thấy toàn những tin “khủng khiếp”, nào lụt lội tại Colarodo (nhà cửa tan nát, bị nước cuốn trôi, cả ngàn người được di tản bằng trực thăng Chinook); vụ thảm sát hàng loạt tại Cơ Xưởng Hải Quân (Navy Shipyard) tại Washington, DC; vụ cháy rừng tại California, và mới đây nhất, vụ bắn giết hàng loạt tại Chicago, v.v.. Nhưng trong những tin này (mà chúng ta không muốn nghe) lại có những tin khác, làm “ấm lòng” chúng ta khi mà giá trị con người được nâng cao qua 2 câu chuyện sau đây: (chỉ tóm tắt, xin đọc bản tin tiếng Anh phía dưới)

Chuyện thứ 1: 

Một người vô gia cư, Glen James, đã nhặt được 1 cái túi đeo lưng, trong đó có hơn $2,400 tiền mặt, các chi phiếu du lịch trị giá đến 39,500 mỹ kim và 1 thông hành. Thay vì giấu mọi người và dùng số tiền vừa nhặt được đó vì ông ta cũng đang túng thiếu, nhưng KHÔNG, ông lại đem trao nguyên cái túi đó cho Sở Cảnh Sát Boston. Sau đó Sở Cảnh Sát đã tìm được người đã đánh mất túi đeo lưng này (sau khi kiểm lại lý lịch).

Câu chuyện không dừng lại nơi đây, 1 thanh niên trẻ tuổi, Ethan Whittington, 27 tuổi, đã phát động trên mạng Facebook, lập 1 Quỹ Hỗ Trợ (gây quỹ) cho Glen, mục đích để tưởng thưởng cho ông vô gia cư nầy, nhưng cho đến hôm nay, việc gây quỹ (nghe nói) đã lên đến trên 100 ngàn mỹ kim rồi.

Vấn đề là làm sao ông Glen nầy “quản lý” (chữ trong ngoặc kép) được số tiền trên trăm ngàn này? Vì chính bản thân ông cũng không có 1 xu dính túi. Đừng lo, vì ông anh của Ethan là nhà hoạch định tài chánh, thì việc trao tiền cho ông Glen cũng không khó (người nào đó đứng ra nhận $$, mỗi tháng trao lại cho ông Glen bao nhiêu $$ chẳng hạn). (Nghe nói) có người đề nghị cung cấp $$$ mua bảo hiểm sức khỏe cho ông, lại (có 1 bà homeless) nguyện “sửa túi nâng khăn” cho ông nữa. 

Cảm động nhất là xem video thấy các em nhỏ đóng góp người $2, người $5, người $10. Mặc dù nhiều người còn nghi ngại khi đóng góp trên mạng, nếu không, số tiền đóng góp sẽ tăng gấp đôi.

Câu chuyện thứ 2

Tại tiệm bán kem Dairy Queen tại Hopkins, MN, 1 bà vào mua hàng, đang

đứng đợi, thì 1 ông khách hàng khác cũng vào mua kem, vô tình đánh rơi tờ $20, bà kia nhặt được, thay vì trả lại cho người khách hàng thì bà lại cất vào ví, làm của riêng. Người bán hàng (manager tiệm), anh Joey Prusak, 19 tuổi, thấy được sự việc từ đầu chí cuối, sau đó nhỏ nhẹ nói với bà nầy nên trao trả $20 lại cho người đàn ông nhưng bà này lại không chịu làm như vậy. Rốt cuộc, anh chàng này từ chối không phục vụ cho bà khách hàng tham lam này (không bán kem cho bà ta). Sau đó, Joey đã trao $20 từ tiền túi của mình cho ông khách hàng khiếm thị nói trên. 

Câu chuyện không dừng lại nơi đây: 1 khách hàng khác, đã tung ra trên Internet về sự việc này. Câu chuyện đến tai ông Warren Buffett (tỉ phú Mỹ), xếp của hệ thống Dairy Queen nầy. Chính ông Warren Buffett đã đích thân gọi điện thoại nói chuyện và khen ngợi nghĩa cử của Joey Prusak và mời anh này sang năm đến dự Đại Hội Cổ Đông vào tháng 5 năm 2014. Nhiều người còn đề nghị việc làm cho anh, hỗ trợ tiền để anh nầy học đại học, vân vân.. 

Cũng nên nhớ Joey đã làm việc tại tiệm kem này từ lúc anh mới 14 tuổi, hiện đang theo học đại học. 

Qua 2 câu chuyện này, chúng ta rút ra được các kết luận sơ khởi như sau:

(1) Giữa cái xã hội đầy bạo động và thượng vàng hạ cám này, cũng có những người “ngay thẳng, thành thực, không tham lam”  (trường hợp Glen James).

(2) Thấy chuyện trái tai gai mắt thì can thiệp ngay (Joey Prusak), từ chối không phục vụ (bà khách hàng thiếu lương tâm) và sẵn sàng móc tiền túi để đền bồi tiền khách hàng khiếm thị bị đánh mất tiền.

(3) Một xã hội không vô cảm, biết đáp ứng nhanh chóng trong việc đóng góp, người Mỹ rất từ tâm/thương người/giúp đời, sẵn sàng đóng góp nếu có người gặp hoạn nạn, đáng giúp đỡ, hoặc ủng hộ 1 nghĩa cử, mục tiêu nào đó! (Warren Buffet – Tỉ phú này hiện nay là một nhà từ thiện trong cong ty từ thiện Bill Gates)

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English Version:

Donations pour in for homeless man who returned backpack with $42K
AP Photo / Steven Senne
Glen James, left, smiles as Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis looks on during a news conference at the police headquarters recognizing James’ Good Samaritan actions on Monday.
By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News
Honesty really paid off for a homeless man in Boston who turned in a backpack worth nearly $42,000 earlier this week.
Since his good deed, an online fundraiser had raised more than $92,000 for Glen James by early Thursday, and brought in offers from strangers who want to help the Good Samaritan by donating computers and offering health care services to him.
“I like to make people happy. That’s what makes me happy,” said Ethan Whittington, 27, of Midlothian, Va., who started the effort for James.
Whittington has never met James, but felt compelled to start a fundraising campaign for him after reading about him.
Whittington, an accounts manager for a marketing firm, set up the fundraiser on the online donation site GoFundMe on Tuesday expecting “maybe a couple hundred bucks over the next couple of weeks,” but set his goal at $50,000.
Strangers have raised nearly half of a $50,000 goal, to reward a homeless man who found and returned a sack full of cash. WHDH’s Ryan Schulteis reports.
“I figured he found [about] $41,000, let’s give him $50,000,” he said. “I didn’t expect what we’ve received. I’m ecstatic about it.”
James found the bag, which contained $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in travelers checks, in front of a TJ Maxx store in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood on Saturday evening.
He flagged down police who were patrolling the area to tell them he had found the cash-laden bag, and gave them his name and the name of the shelter where he lives.
The money was returned a short time later to its owner, who had told staff at a store nearby that he “lost his backpack containing a large sum of money” and his passport, police said. The owner was identified by his People’s Republic of China passport.
Boston police held a ceremony honoring James on Monday and presented him with a special citation.

Krista Hull

Ethan Whittington of Virginia has raised tens of thousands of dollars through his online donation effort.
“I just want to thank Mr. James for what he did,” said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis. “It really is a remarkable tribute to him and his honesty.”
Whittington said he and James spoke on the phone on Tuesday after the GoFundMe site started catching on.
“It was awesome. To do something for somebody and you don’t even know them, and you see pictures of them, you hear great things about them, and then to finally get to talk to them, is great.  He was saying thank you, but the biggest thing I was trying to convey to him is he didn’t have to thank us, we were thanking him,” he said.
During their phone call, the two hammered out possible ways the large sum could be transferred to James, something that Whittington said James felt a bit hesitant about.
“We’re going to have to find somebody who can help him financially,” Whittington said, adding that his own brother is a certified financial planner who is willing to assist. “Hopefully we can get some concrete plans out there. I want to make sure it’s what Glen wants, because ultimately, it’s his money.”
Some who came to Whittington’s GoFundMe site expressed concern that their donations would reach James, which Whittington said was understandable when making contributions online.
Glen James is being recognized for returning a backpack filled with $40,000 after finding the money at a mall on Saturday. James was honored by Boston police on Monday and a fund has been started to help pay for the Good Samaritan’s medical care and other needs.
“I have the best of intentions for Mr. James. I want this to positively influence the rest of his life,” he said. He added that he hopes to either give him the money through a bank account or to go deliver it in person.
“I’d like to go up to Boston amd meet him and give the guy a hug,” he said.
In the meantime, as donations continue to pour in on GoFundMe — ranging from $5 to $500, Whittington said — people have also volunteered to donate other things.
Some have written to Whittington that they want to give James their computers, others that they’d be willing to do free dental work.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s nothing I ever imagined in my wildest dreams,” Whittington said. “The sky’s the limit when people come together.”

Warren Buffett Invites Good Deed Dairy Queen Teen to Shareholders Meeting

Video clip for Joey Prusak:

http://youtu.be/n8N4BAejxgk

A Minnesota teen’s act of kindness for a blind customer has gone viral and has prompted an outpouring of praise, including from billionaire Warren Buffett, who has invited the teen to his company shareholder’s meeting next year.
Joey Prusak, 19, has been hailed as a Good Samaritan after he gave $20 out of his own wallet to a blind customer who dropped $20 and the money was taken by a woman who refused to return it.
“I was just doing what I thought was right,” Prusak told the Associated Press. “I did it without even really thinking about it. … Ninety-nine out of 100 people would’ve done the same thing as me.”
The teen’s good deed went viral after a customer who witnessed the incident wrote an email about it to Dairy Queen and the store printed it out and posted it. A customer took a photo of the email and it spread through Facebook and Reddit.
Since then, supporters have flooded the Dairy Queen where Prusak is a manager with visits and phone calls. People have offered him jobs and given him money for college.
He even got a very special phone call from billionaire Warren Buffett, whose company owns Dairy Queen, as well was Dairy Queen president and CEO John Gainor.
Buffett requested that Prusak attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in May 2014 in Omaha, Neb., so that he can meet him, Dairy Queen spokesman Dean Peters told ABCNews.com today. Buffett is chairman, president and CEO of the famed multinational holding company.
Prusak will be Gainor’s special guest at the meeting.
“We’re thrilled that Joey, one of our young managers in Hopkins, would do something like that, to go above and beyond to help out a customer like he did,” Peters said. “We couldn’t be more proud.”
Peters said the company is “absolutely” working on a way to reward Prusak but aren’t ready to make a public announcement yet.
“Here’s somebody that did something good for someone else and no one asked him to do it,” he said. “It strikes a chord in a lot of people.”
Prusak was working at the Hopkins, Minn., Dairy Queen where he is a manager when he noticed a blind man drop a $20 bill on the ground and was unaware of it. An older woman in the line picked up the bill and put it in her purse instead of returning it to the man, Prusak said.
Prusak asked the woman to give the man his money back, but she said it was her money that she had dropped. He asked her again to return the money, but she refused. He then asked her to leave the store, as he would not serve someone so disrespectful.
“She got extremely angry and began to swear at your employee,” the witnessing customer wrote in the email to Dairy Queen. “He stayed calm and never gave her any attitude.”
The woman left the store and the customer who wrote the email told Prusak that he had done the right thing and then went and sat in the lobby near the blind man.
“What happened next I would have never expected,” the email said.
Prusak approached the man, opened his own wallet and gave the man $20.
“I was in shock by the generosity that your employee had, taking his own money out of his own wallet to give to the customer because some other lady decided to steal something that wasn’t hers,” the email said.
Then Prusak went back to work.