One day, a homeless man walked into Abi’s Cafe’s in Minneapolis, asking for spare change. The owner of the restaurant refused, asking him why he doesn’t have a job.
“You know nothing is given to me for free right?” said Cesia Abi Baires, the owner.
“Well, I have a lot of felonies and no one wants to hire me for that, so now I had to turn myself to the streets,” replied the homeless man, Marcus.
So Cesi hired him. Marcus now takes out the trash and washes the dishes for the restaurant, and has been gainfully employed there for two weeks already.
“There are a lot of people who walk in, there a lot of drugs and activities and crime in this area,” Baires told ABC News. “If they ask me for money, I offer food. I told him nothing is given to me for free, just to see what his reaction was going to be. Some people might take that as an offense.”
Baires said that Marcus shows up on time for his two-hour shift everyday, and has even started to pay it forward with the generosity he received from Baires.
“When he came in that very first day [of work] I asked him if he wanted to eat before he started to do anything and I gave him some food,” Baires said. “He only ate half of it, then one of his lady friends walked by and he wrapped half of his food and ran to the door and gave the food to her. I said, ‘Marcus do you know the lady over there?’ and he said ‘No, but I know that she is hungry so I gave her my food.’”
Baires shared the story on Facebook, which soon traveled across the web, and many people have asked her how they can help Marcus. Baires has created a GoFundMe page for people who want to donate to help Marcus, such as finding him a place to live.
