What's the biggest mistake you've ever made in your life? One that was really hard to come back from? Whatever it is, we're not sure if it will top this story. One man took to Reddit to share his, and let's just say it'll probably be hard to believe.
"TIFU by donating $15,041 to a poor community in Bangladesh instead of the $150 donation I intended," the Redditor titled the post. The man behind the bizarre story is a Californian who prefers to go by the name of Michael.
Michael begins his post by clarifying that the events occurred in February 2022. But his friends had been telling him he needed to post the story online, so he decided to do so.
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"My wife and I (both 31 years old, at the time) moved into a new three-unit apartment building in San Francisco," he shared. "One of our neighbors is a 70-something year old retired veteran, we’ll call him Joe. For context, Joe is a white American guy and he’s also a devout Hindu priest. One day I run into Joe in my hallway, and he tells me about this charity he manages for a community in Bangladesh. I wanted to support my neighbor and the charity, so I ask Joe to send me the GoFundMe link."
The post continued. "The next day at work, I go on the GoFundMe page and donate $150. Or so I thought. Moments later, I get a text on my phone warning me of an unusually large transaction on my credit card. I’m confused and swipe to open the text message. It says I have made a payment of $15,041 to GoFundMe. Immediately I’m sweating. How could I have donated FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS? I spend the next 10-15 minutes retracing my steps, and finally I realize my credit card starts with the numbers 4 and 1. It seems I had accidentally started typing my credit card information while my cursor was still in the donation box, and just like that 150 became 15041. Yikes."
Michael goes on to explain how in a panic to fix his mistake, he contacted the GoFundMe support line, and the repo told him they'd initiate a refund, which should process in three to seven business days. But the bad part was, the donation would be visible on the GoFundMe page until the refund had processed, which meant people would be able to see the sizeable donation. So he decided to go to Joe first thing in the morning to explain what had happened so he'd know why a refund had been initiated.
But the next morning, Michael woke up to over 40 Facebook notifications and a friend request from someone with a Hindu name. "The man had sent me a video of himself from Bangladesh, surrounded by dozens of impoverished and hungry people holding bags of food, thanking me BY NAME (Michael) for my generous donation. A big round of applause for Michael. At this point, I’ve leapt out of my bed and I’m pacing. Part of me wants to scream, part of me wants to crack up laughing. I start swiping through the man’s messages, and it is picture after picture after picture of poor Bangladeshis thanking me for my kind donation. Literally hundreds of photos of frail, elderly, disabled, and malnourished individuals holding signs with my name."
"Needless to say, I couldn’t live with myself just donating $150 after seeing how the community responded to the $15,041. I decided the least I could do was to add a zero, and so I donated $1,500 once the original donation was refunded. The charity’s host was incredibly gracious and understanding, and he explained to me that $1,500 goes very far in Bangladesh for urgent food relief."
After Michael shared his story, it ended up going viral, compelling more people to donate to the GoFundMe campaign. The initial target of $26,108 was surpassed, and the organization has raised $36,520. Michael, who shared he ultimately felt guilty for changing his donation from $15,000 to $1,500, says that he now feels proud. “The online community more than covered for me and now I feel so proud of this whole story.”
