Reports today have focused on a five-year-old financial snafu that has seen one lucky American man become the world’s richest man… for two minutes. That is, until the PayPal glitch was resolved, and all his riches disappeared.
At the time, Chris Reynolds from Pennsylvania was checking his PayPal account back in 2013 and had expected to see the usual $140 he had stored there. But to his surprise, he opened the account to find a whopping $92 quadrillion dollars listed in the credit column.
The massive sum instantly made Chris the world’s first-ever quadrillionaire, but his status was short-lived. In a matter of minutes, the PayPal technology team figured out what had gone wrong and corrected the mistake. After two minutes, the system reset itself, and the account balance was returned to its original $140.
In a recent interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, Chris said that if he were to have kept the money for himself, he would have used it to attempt to make a dent in the national debt, then use what was left to buy the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. Sadly though, Chris was never given the chance to make his fortune.
PayPal responded by saying it was clearly a technological error but was so inspired by Chris’s dream of using the money to help the community that they generously offered to donate an undisclosed sum of money to the charity of Chris’ choice.
It is heartening to see stories like this in the news. It’s not often that these positive stories get much media attention. Chris Reynolds exemplifies the modern-day philanthropist.
No matter how much money one has, they are never too poor to help those in need. Money may not always buy happiness, but it certainly has the potential to improve the lives of countless people if used properly.