I DISGUISED MYSELF AS A BEGGAR AND ENTERED MY OWN MALL TO FIND MY NEXT HEIR — I ALMOST LOST HOPE IN HUMANITY BECAUSE OF PEOPLE’S CRUELTY, UNTIL SOMEONE GRABBED MY HAND TIGHTLY TO SAVE ME
Don Eduardo was seventy years old.
He was the owner of Vista Malls, the largest chain of shopping centers in the country.
He was a billionaire—but he had no family.
His wife had died of illness, and they never had children.
Because his life was nearing its end due to lung cancer, he needed to choose an heir.
His Board of Directors were nothing but vultures—people waiting for him to die so they could divide his fortune among themselves.
“I don’t want everything I worked for to end up in the hands of heartless people,” Eduardo said to himself.
So he came up with a social experiment.
He disguised himself as a grease-covered beggar.
He wore a torn sleeveless shirt, smeared charcoal on his face, and splashed fish sauce on his clothes to make himself smell foul.
The plan was simple:
He would enter his most high-end mall.
Whoever showed him genuine kindness—without disgust—would become his heir.
The moment Eduardo entered the mall, people immediately stared at him.
“Yuck! He stinks!” shouted a woman wearing Gucci.
“Guard! Why did you let that thing in?!”
A security guard approached him.
“Hey, old man! Out! Beggars aren’t allowed here! You’re ruining the view!”
“P-please… just a little water,” Eduardo begged shakily, acting the part.
“I’m so thirsty…”
“Water?!” the guard sneered.
“Go drink from the gutter!”
He shoved Eduardo hard.
Eduardo fell onto the shiny marble floor.
People laughed as they passed by.
Some teenagers even filmed him to upload on TikTok.
“Hahaha! This is crazy—there’s a zombie in the mall!”
Eduardo stood up and walked toward the food court.
He approached a table where a family was eating steak.
“Excuse me… do you perhaps have any leftovers?”
“Shoo!” the father snapped.
“Get away! You might infect us with your diseases!”
Eduardo felt crushed.
All day long he wandered around.
No one gave him anything. No one showed pity.
Only disgust and mockery.
Is there really no good person left in this world? he wondered.
Should I just donate everything to charity instead?
Exhausted and hungry—truly hungry, because he hadn’t eaten all day to make the test realistic—Eduardo sat down on a bench near a Luxury Watch Store.
Suddenly, the store manager came out.
“Hey! Get out of here!” the manager shouted.
“You smell like trash! My rich customers won’t come in because of you!”
The manager grabbed a broom and raised it, about to strike Eduardo.
“I said get out!”
Eduardo closed his eyes.
He waited for the blow.
But it never came.
Instead, he felt a hand grip his arm tightly.
Someone pulled him up and stepped in front of the manager.
Eduardo opened his eyes.
In front of him stood a janitor, wearing a uniform.
Thin, sweaty, and clearly exhausted.
The name on his ID read Caloy.
“Sir, that’s enough,” Caloy pleaded while holding Eduardo’s arm.
“He’s already old. Please don’t hurt him. I’ll take him out myself.”
“Oh? You’re siding with him now?” the manager yelled.
“Fine! Take him with you! I’ll report you to your agency! You’ll be fired tomorrow!”
“It’s okay, sir,” Caloy replied calmly.
“At least I won’t have to watch you hurt an old man.”
Caloy guided Eduardo away from the arrogant crowd and led him to the fire exit, where it was quiet and empty.
He helped Eduardo sit on the stairs.
“Uncle, are you okay?” Caloy asked.
He took out his tumbler and offered it to him.
“Here—clean water.”
Eduardo drank.
“Thank you, son. Why did you help me? You’re going to lose your job because of me.”
Caloy smiled bitterly.
“Uncle, a job can be found again. But a human life only comes once.
I saw you earlier. You reminded me of my father back in the province.
He died of hunger because no one helped him when he got sick.
I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
Caloy pulled a small plastic bag from his pocket.
Inside were half a sandwich and one boiled egg.
“This is all I brought for today. Let’s share,” Caloy said.
He split the food and gave the larger portion to Eduardo.
Eduardo’s eyes filled with tears.
The rich people earlier wouldn’t give a single grain of rice—
yet this janitor, who was about to lose his job, was willing to give away his last meal.
“What is your dream, Caloy?” Eduardo asked.
“Nothing fancy, sir,” Caloy replied.
“I just want my mother to get treatment for her kidney disease,
and for my younger sibling to finish school.
I don’t need to be rich—just to keep my family whole.”
Eduardo nodded.
“You are a very good man, Caloy.”
“You too, sir. Please rest.”
Eduardo stood up.
“Caloy,” he said, “I have something to give you.”
“Huh? But you don’t have anything with you.”
Eduardo pulled out a small walkie-talkie from the torn pocket of his shirt.
He pressed the button.
“Protocol Alpha. Now.”
Within one minute, the fire exit door opened.
Ten men in barong shirts with earpieces entered—bodyguards.
With them were the Chief of Security and Eduardo’s personal lawyer.
Caloy panicked.
“Uncle! Run! I think they’re going to arrest us!”
Caloy instinctively stepped in front of Eduardo to protect him.
But the men bowed deeply to the “beggar.”
“Good afternoon, Chairman Eduardo,” they said in unison.
Caloy’s jaw dropped.
“C-Chairman?”
The lawyer handed Eduardo a wet towel.
Eduardo wiped the charcoal from his face and removed the wig.
The face that appeared was the same one Caloy had seen on posters all over the mall.
“D-Don Eduardo?!” Caloy trembled.
“The owner of this mall?!”
Eduardo smiled and placed a hand on Caloy’s shoulder.
“Yes, Caloy. And starting today… you are no longer a janitor.”
Eduardo brought Caloy back into the mall—this time surrounded by bodyguards.
They walked straight to the Luxury Watch Store, where the manager who had chased them away was still standing.
When the manager saw Don Eduardo, his face went pale.
“S-Sir Eduardo!”
“You’re fired,” Eduardo said coldly.
“And make sure you never set foot in any establishment I own ever again.”
Eduardo then turned to the crowd that had gathered.
“Listen to me!” he shouted.
“All day, I walked around this mall as a beggar.
Every single one of you chased me away.
But this man—” he raised Caloy’s hand,
“—he was the only one who treated me like a human being.”
“Caloy,” Eduardo said, “because of your kindness, you are the one I chose.”
“Chose for what, sir?” Caloy asked shakily.
“I have no children. No family.
So in my Last Will and Testament,
I have named you the sole heir to all my assets.”
Everyone gasped.
Caloy—the janitor—was now a billionaire.
“B-but sir… I don’t know how to run a company!” Caloy cried.
“I’ll teach you,” Eduardo replied.
“Business can be learned.
But a pure heart? That cannot be bought.
And that is what my company needs.”
Caloy wept and knelt to thank him,
but Eduardo lifted him up and embraced him like a true son.
The story spread across the world.
Caloy’s mother recovered.
His sibling finished school.
And Caloy became a compassionate leader of Vista Malls—
now known as the mall with a heart for the poor.