Homeless Man Returns Diamond Engagement Ring

Sarah Darling from Kansas City, Missouri, recently lost and found her, not inexpensive, diamond engagement ring. She removed it for a while, and dropped it off by mistake into a homeless man's collection pot. Fearing it was gone forever when she realized her mistake, she was amazed when the panhandler returned it a couple of days later. According to CNN,

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 often stays 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,'"

To show their appreciation, Sarah Darling and her husband set up an online fundraiser for Harris, and donations have been pouring in since, with people praising the man for his honesty and kindness. When Harris was asked him how he felt about all the attention he's been attracting since he returned the ring, he said, "I like it, but I don't think I deserve it. "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?'"

Unfortunately, that's the world we live in. So it's always a breath of fresh air when one comes across news like this. More to $95,000 has been raised for Harris and I hope it enables him to start a better life for himself. He's an inspiration.