Mystery Lottery Winner DONATES $1.8 Million Ticket

[matcom]

<snip>

TOKYO (Reuters) - Officials in western Japan were marveling on Sunday at the generosity of a mystery philanthropist who donated a $1.8 million lottery ticket to help victims of recent torrential rainstorms.

In an extremely rare display of charity, a winning lottery ticket good for a 200 million yen ($1.82 million) grand prize was mailed to the governor of Fukui prefecture on Friday with a note saying it was intended as a donation for rain victims.

"I am sending a lottery ticket that is blessed with luck hoping that it will be of some help to the people who had the misfortune of suffering damages," the letter said.

Hiroko Imatomi, a Fukui prefecture official who first spotted the mail, said the note convinced her the sender was sincere.

"It was a wonderful letter ... It was definitely not intended as a hoax or a joke," she said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=573&e=1&u=/nm/20040726/od_nm/odd_japan_lottery_dc

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wow - that person is bigger than I am...

I might have donated SOME of it...but not ALL of it. Cheers to that person. :toast:

[mom cat]

5. Me too. I would not have so truly compassionate, but I am deeply

moved that there are people like the mystery winner. O8) O8)

[Mari333]

2. Goodness and compassion happen every day

We just dont hear those stories reported enough.

[underpants]

3. Torrential downpours pounded Fukui prefecture

Now that just sounds dirty

[mom cat]

6. Get your mind out of your underpants!

:evilgrin:

[wildeyed]

4. An amazing demonstration of generosity.

If religious folks did stuff like this, instead of just stuffing their own pockets, I would suddenly be much more interested in religion.

[nuxvomica]

7. My initial reaction was that the sender was crazy

Shame on me.