By the look he is a shabby beggar, but you may not believe that he is richer than most of the middle class population in India. Young Indian Beggar (not blogger) Pappu Kumar made property worth 1.25 Crore ($185,000) during his 8 years begging career on the streets of Patna, Bihar. He also has cash of around Rs. 500,000 ($7,500) in several bank accounts. He now runs a parallel business of lending money to the local traders charging high interest. However, the astonishing fact is that this thirty three year old beggar still begs on the streets of Patna.
Life was not very kind to Pappu, an engineering aspirant in his early days when he met with a serious accident that left him with partial paralysis. Soon after the accident, his father also passed away and his family disowned him because of his physical condition. He had no choice other than begging to sustain.
Pappu was never destined to begging and he secured 57% marks in intermediate examination with 72% in mathematics. His dream was to become an engineer, but never did he think that he would earn more than most of the engineers in the future through begging.
Although, Pappu took the begging profession to survive, with no time he flourished in it. He set up a small camp at the Patna railway station where he begged for the next seven years. His rag-to-riches story unfolded only when the local police took him into custody to clear the place for the illegal construction of his begging camp. He refused to shift his begging camp and upon investigation, police found that he has several bank accounts, two pieces of land (2,000 square feet each) and already lent more than Rs. 10,00,000 to different local traders at high interest rates.
This came as a shock to the police department and they remained amused that why he still continuing to beg! Even after repeated request from the police, he refused to give up his profession and continued to beg in the streets of Patna. Moreover, he refused to seek medical help to get cured. His simple logic is that he will not be able to continue begging if he becomes physically fit. What say?
The post first appeared in KenFolios - Only interesting stories.
Feel sad when someone gives up good health just for the sake of money...
ReplyDeleteNot surprising since most of us part with Rs10 at least when a beggar approach. Imagine about a thousand generous people per day! A beggar earns more than many ordinary labourers and even professionals and saves more too since he doesn't need to show off!
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