The ‘World’s Richest Beggar’ Has Officially Made Millionaire Status

In a considerable feat, an Indian man’s rags-to-riches story comes from an accumulation of his begging efforts. His money-making strategy started gaining traction in 2015 when media outlets in India and now international news sources began paying attention to the now-millionaire known as the wealthy beggar.

Bharat Jain has spent years begging as his main form of work, placing himself in the optimal position for 10 to 12 hours daily to ask wealthy pedestrians for any spare change. This unusual enterprise has amassed a fortune of just over $1 million, nearly $900,000 directly from the charitable handouts, The New York Post reports. Those dollars have added up so much that his children won’t need to go down his career path, being able to attend the formal academic institutes that their father had to forgo due to poverty.

Begging is an odd source of income that has proven to be quite sustainable and profitable for Jain. He makes approximately 2,000 to 2,500 rupees a day, equivalent to USD $25 to $30. His typical hotspots include Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station or Azad Maidan, a sports ground in Mumbai.

He is not returning to squalor when he leaves his unorthodox shift as a beggar. He currently has a 2-bedroom flat in the city and shops that provide additional streams of income that contribute to his wealth. While begging is his main bread and butter, the shops bring a few hundred dollars monthly. Although not everyone’s reality, Jain has mastered how to capitalize on what many would call an unfortunate predicament.

Despite his untraditional profession, and urgings from his family to stop his trade now that he has reached his height of success, Jain refuses to retire from the literal field. The technically “self-made” millionaire will continue to solicit money from strangers so long as it incurs the monetary satisfaction that has become his claim to fame.