In the minds of most of us, a small amount of money like 500 or 1000 dong isn’t enough to buy even a bunch of vegetables. Therefore, sometimes when we see money on the ground, no one bothers to pick it up. The old man below has proven that this common belief is completely wrong!
For over 45 years, Otha Anders, a resident of Louisiana, has maintained a peculiar habit: collecting coins. According to the 76-year-old, he once accidentally found a penny (worth $0.01 USD) on the ground and decided to keep it.
Since that day, whenever Mr. Otha found a coin, he would put it into his piggy bank. For him, finding coins was not just a stroke of luck, but also a reminder to have more faith and love for life.
“I believe that every time I find a coin someone dropped, it’s God reminding me to be grateful for life each day,” Otha said. “When I visit someone’s house, if I find a penny, I keep it. But if it’s a 25-cent coin, I return it to the homeowner.”
Mr. Otha also made it a habit to avoid spending pennies, saving them instead in a piggy bank.
“It’s probably been about 40 years since I last touched a penny. If I had banknotes and loose change, I’d rather tear them up and spend them,” Mr. Otha said.
In addition, whenever he went shopping, Mr. Otha always asked for at least 3-4 pennies in change to put into his savings. Over the years, his pile of coins became so large that it was impossible to count. He had to store them in 15 five-liter water containers.
Around the end of 2015, Mr. Otha took his “fortune” to the bank to convert it into cash. The reason for this decision was that the place where he lived did not have insurance for the coins he owned.
Along with a friend, Mr. Otha used a pickup truck to transport his pile of savings to the Ruston Origin Bank in Lost Angeles. The staff there were astonished by the enormous amount of coins and also expressed admiration for the old man’s perseverance.
After five hours of pouring coins into the counting machine, the total amount of coins Mr. Otha had accumulated over more than four decades was $5,136. He used this impressive savings to pay for dental checkups.
As the saying goes, “little by little, a great thing is made!” Starting with just small, insignificant pennies that few people would pay attention to, Mr. Otha has built a massive collection that is not only valuable but also inspires admiration for his patience and frugality.