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- A nine-year-old boy mistook a businessman as homeless and gave him his last dollar.
- The businessman, Matt Busbice, rewarded the boy with a shopping spree.
- Busbice said he hadn't had "that much faith in humanity in a very long time."
A nine-year-old boy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, mistook a businessman as homeless and gave him his last dollar, local news outlet WBRZ reported.
The incident occurred after 42 year-old Matt Busbice had left his house in a rush one morning after hearing a fire alarm.
Finding no fire, he headed to a local coffee shop, placed his order, and then stepped outside to do his morning prayer, as security camera footage of the incident shows.
As he finished, nine-year-old Kelvin Ellis Jr. approached him with his hand held out, thinking Busbice was a homeless man.
"'I said, 'Excuse me, sir, are you homeless? Because if you are, here's a dollar,'" Ellis Jr. recalled, adding that he had always wanted to help a homeless person.
"I had money, it wasn't that much — but it could still help him get something," he said.
Busbice told CBS News he hadn't had "that much faith in humanity in a very long time."
As a thank you for the kind gesture, Busbice bought Ellis Jr. breakfast as well as a coffee for his father. He also took Ellis Jr. on a shopping trip to his sporting goods store, BuckFeather, giving him 40 seconds to choose anything he wanted, per the report.
According to WBRZ, Busbice is a millionaire who found success after opening a string of outdoor businesses and brands focused on the hunting industry.
"If you give, you're actually going to get more out of that," Busbice told CBS News. "I couldn't grasp that as a kid. And if we can spread that around, everything changes."
Louisiana has experienced huge swings in the number of homeless people in the state over the last few years, likely driven by the devastating impact of Hurricane Ida in 2021.
From 2020 to 2022, the state suffered the second-largest percentage increase in homelessness levels, up 132.4%, per the 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.
From 2022 to 2023, Louisiana had the largest percentage decrease in the number of homeless people, down 57%,