This heartwarming rags-to-riches story is guaranteed to restore your faith in humanity. A Chinese businessman who was once helped off the streets by a passerby, is now repaying the kindness by offering his benefactor a whopping one million yuan (over $160,000).

This story began in 1993, when 17-year-old He Rongfeng was forced to beg on the streets of Taizhou city in China’s Zhejiang province, to support his poor family. “Two friends and I had gone to Taizhou looking for work, but we were unsuccessful and ended up roaming the streets, penniless, starving, and without even shoes,” Rongfeng recalled. “We were in the pits and couldn’t see a way out, and then this young woman turned up.”

The woman was Dai Xingfen, who ran a local noodle shop with her husband. She took Rongfeng and his friends back to her modest one-room apartment and offered them food and a place to sleep. She gave them hot water to soothe their blistered feet, and then called a few acquaintances to find work for the boys in another city. Before they parted, she even gave them money for the train fare.

But the best thing she gave them was a bit of good advice: “She said it’s okay not to have a lot of money, but always strive to be a good person,” Rongfeng, now 38, recalls. “And I have never forgotten that.” Over the years, Rongfeng worked hard in the furniture business and became a successful entrepreneur in Shenyang city, China’s Liaoning province. He is now the chairman of the Shenyang Jiu Jiu Li Feng Group.

But he never forgot about the woman who gave him his first break, and when he was wealthy enough, he decided to track her down. It wasn’t hard for him to find Dai’s noodle house again – he went to see her and offered her a large sum of money as a token of his gratitude. “If it hadn’t been for Dai’s kindness that day, 21 years ago, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” he said.

The meeting was a touching one, with both Dai and Rongfeng in tears. Rongfeng tried to offer her money, and even forced her to keep a few medicines and tonics. Modest Dai, however, refused his offer of riches. “I couldn’t possibly take his money as I didn’t help him for that,” said 45-year-old Dai. “He has made me very contented and surprised by remembering me. But I cannot take the money. That was not the point.”

So instead, Rongfeng gifted Dai a large plaque that reads: “Gratitude as Heavy as a Mountain”. Dai was quite happy with the plaque and called it a beautiful gesture.

via NetEase