Minneapolis merchant sees transformation in beggar who had troubled pastHow many times have you been hit up for “spare change” and just didn’t know how to respond? Or felt that the person asking for money wasn’t really homeless but had to feed a drug habit?
A Minneapolis cafe owner named Cesia Abigail was in a position to help such a beggar, and when she took a chance on him, she saw signs of a redemption underway.
The baggy-clothed man walked into Abigail’s storefront — Abi’s Cafe — two weeks ago, and the 25-year-old was blunt with him: “Why don’t you have a job? You know nothing is given to me for free, right?”
“Well, I have a lot of felonies, and no one wants to hire me for that,” the man, named Marcus, responded, trying to avoid eye contact. “So, now I had to turn myself to the streets and get money the only way I know — stealing and asking for money.”
Her business was not exactly booming, but Abigail decided to offer the man a job washing dishes for the day.
“You want a job? Then I have one for you,” Abigail told him.
With a big grin, the man gladly accepted the woman’s offer: “I will do anything for food.”
“A lot of people are saying I’ve been a blessing for him, but at that point I was the one who needed a blessing,” Abigail told CBS News.
His actions seemed to provide that blessing: When she offered him a sandwich, the first thing he did was to take half of it outside to feed a homeless woman on the street.
“That really touched me,” Abigail recalled. CBS continued:
After putting in two hours of work — the number of hours Abigail could afford to pay him, Marcus was on his way. The next day, he returned.
For two weeks he showed up on time for his shift. On Easter Monday, Abigail planned to make his position permanent.
“Some restaurants wouldn’t even let you use their restrooms,” she said. “I don’t judge someone on how they look — go use it. I do not treat [homeless people] any different.”
If restaurants and businesses don’t do anything to help the less fortunate, then they become part of the problem, Abigail said.
Now, Marcus’s new boss is withholding 10 percent of his paycheck and setting it aside so he can start learning to save money.
