It is not often that we come across people who are selfless and think of others and their well-being. It takes a lot of courage to be selfless and to be able to help others because most of us are afraid of draining our resources or being taken advantage of. How many of us have seen someone in trouble and wanted if only I were rich so that I could have helped them? But these people were not all rich, some were actually extremely poor, and yet they found it in themselves to be selfless. Read on to find out about them and what they did. They are sure to restore your faith in humanity, and who knows, even inspire you.

1 When a woman from Long Island accidentally threw away an envelope with $5,000 mortgage payment, sanitation workers sifted through all the trash till they found it. Further, they refused to accept any reward for it. 

Bayban Nadalall had set aside a cash of $5,000 in an envelope for her mortgage payment which she mistakenly threw away in a trash and couldn’t find it later. When she called her son, who also works in the sanitation department, he asked the help of three of his co-workers, to help sift through loads of trash gathered at Merrick Transfer Station, Long Island. They were able to recover all the money, except for $40 that fell out of the envelope.(source)

2 Mike Ilitch, the owner of Little Caesars and Detroit Tigers, paid Rosa Parks’ rent for over a decade after she was robbed in her home and forced to move to a safer, but expensive place. 

On August 4, 1994, Rosa Parks, the American civil rights activist and active participant of black power movement, was robbed and assaulted in her own home in central Detroit. By that time, she was 81 and suffering from dementia. Knowing of her plight, Judge Damon Kieth, known for defying segregation in 1955 leading to the black civil rights movement, contacted a real estate agent to get her a safer home in Riverfront Apartments. When Mike Ilitch read about it in the newspaper, he quietly gave a check of $2,000 on November 1, 1994, to pay for Parks’ rent. He kept paying the rent until 2005 when Parks passed away at the age of 92.(1, 2)

3 Dobri Dobrev, a 102-year-old-man, begs every day and gives away all he gets to churches and orphanages. 

Dobrev lives 15 miles off the capital city Sofia, Bulgaria. Though he used to walk to the city every day, he now takes a bus and spends all his day asking people for money. He has been making numerous generous donations for years to churches. Moreover, according to a video released by the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, his largest donation so far was 35,700 lev, that is more than $24,000. He also donates the money to orphanages to help them pay their bills. According to a Redditor, Nullvoid123, who met him several times, Dobrev said that he once “did a bad thing,” and is now trying to make up for it by helping others. His only source of income is his pension of 80 euros (around $100) per month.(source)

4 Chuck Feeney, now an ex-billionaire, has given away over 99 percent of his $7.5 billion to help underprivileged children to go to college. He is now worth $2 million. 

Chuck Feeney, an Irish-American businessman, started his philanthropic mission in 1984 when he transferred his entire 38.75 percent ownership stake in Duty Free Shops to what later became the Atlantic Philanthropies. Feeney made several donations including $170 million in grants to the University of Limerick, Ireland. During the last 30 years, he gave away a $7.5 billion fortune, of which $6.2 billion went to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, for education, science, healthcare, aging, and civil rights in the US, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Vietnam, and Bermuda. His current net worth is estimated to be $2 million.(source)

5 There’s a biker gang known as Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) who sits in courtrooms to help sexually abused kids feel relaxed when giving evidence.

The purpose of BACA is to create a safe environment for abused children while the abuser is being prosecuted. They accomplish this through many different actions, including guarding the child’s house at night if the abuser is not yet in jail, escorting them to and from the court, school or therapy sessions. They even attend courtroom cases so that the children will not have to fear while testifying against their abusers.(source)