• Karma repaid an honest man who return a $100 bill
  • After buying a lotto scratch card, he won $1 million
  • He’s revealed what he plans to spend it on
A lucky man won $1 million after returning a £100 bill.
A lucky man won $1 million after returning a £100 bill. Credit: Imago

Turns out, the world isn’t such a terrible place after all, as karma decides to repay an honest person with a slick $1 million Lotto reward. 

This wholesome, real-life story happened in New Jersey and was quickly picked up by local media. It followed a man who stumbled across a rogue $100 bill that had been left on a shop counter. 

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Instead of keeping it for himself, the man opted to return it to store owners, asking them to keep it safe inside an envelope in case its rightful owner came back to look for it. 

After this happened, the man decided to buy some Lotto tickets – a decision that would end up dramatically changing his life for the better. 

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Despite the lucky winner deciding to keep his identity a secret, he found time to share his remarkable experiences with the world. 

“Everybody there just looked at me like I was nuts”

The mystery man told local media about his unlikely story. He explained how he found a $100 note and immediately wondered who it belonged to. 

“I see it, and I turn around,” explained the anonymous winner. 

“There’s a person at the ATM and two people waiting in line… I said ‘Did somebody leave this here?’ Everybody’s saying, ‘just keep it.’”

However, this didn’t sit right with the guy who found the note. “I feel that if you take something that’s not yours, you will never get your own,” he added. 

“Everybody there just looked at me like I was nuts.”

A grand prize winner

The man plans to buy a car and a house with his winnings.
The man plans to buy a car and a house with his winnings. Credit: Imago

After requesting that the bank note be put inside an envelope in case its owner returned, he decided to buy three scratch cards. They were Power 20X tickets, bought at the Paul-Mart on Main Street in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. 

The winning ticket cost him just $20. It gave players the chance to win a grand prize of $1 million. Three prize jackpots were on offer in the game and two had already been claimed, meaning the man’s winnings were the last grand prize on offer. 

According to reports, the lucky man plans to buy a nice reliable vehicle with his winnings, alongside a new home.

Simon is a freelance entertainment journalist and SEO writer based in the UK. He writes about movies, TV and pop-culture and his work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Beast, IndieWire,...