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When the disheveled tramp shuffled through the door of her cafe looking for a handout, it was the last thing that proprietor Cesia Abigail Baires needed. After all, it was the end of a long day and she was dog-tired from trying to keep the struggling business afloat.

And Baires told the man, whose name was Marcus, that she didn’t have any cash to spare for herself. In fact, she said, she was working all hours just to keep Abi’s Cafe – her El Salvadorean restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota – alive.

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As Baires explained in a March 2016 interview with the New York Daily News, “I’ve seen him going up and down on Main Street before like a lot of other homeless people. He came in asking for money. I told him nothing is given for free here. Even my family pays when they come in here!”

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