What does a dollar mean to you?

I did something I always do, then something I hardly ever do last night. I'd gone to Walmart for fish food and a battery for my smoke alarm, etc. My total bill was $14.00, including $2.99 for a 1/2 gallon of Blue Bell Coffee Ice Cream, that as a diabetic I shouldn't be eating to begin with. As I'm walking to the car a small and thin older man with beard in a long-sleeve plaid shirt, the kind of thin older man you might see on the streets or at a homeless shelter, approached carefully and called out "Ma'am, would you have 85 cents for bus fare?" Never slowing down, I called back over my shoulder, "Sorry, can't help you." Before I even got to my car, I was having second thoughts. I sat and watched in the rear view mirror for a couple of minutes as he cautiously approached 2 or 3 other shoppers who walked by totally ignoring him, and thought: he was polite, he wasn't THAT straggly, and he asked for just 85 cents - to catch a bus. (There's a bus stop right next to the store.) And I thought, what's 85 cents mean to me these days? What does a single dollar mean? Heck, I just spent 3 of them on something I'm not even supposed to eat. I found one in the bottom of my purse, backed out and drove over the 2 rows in time to see 2 other people quickly walk past him. I called out "Hey, sir, here I have this," and held the bill out my window. He took it carefully and stroked it like it was precious. His shoulders lifted in a really deep sigh, like a weight had been lifted. He said "Thank you so much, ma'am. You saved me a whole lot of walking." Because of the location of the store, he likely meant many miles. I told him he was welcome and drove off. I felt good about it and by the time I got to the parking lot exit I was choked up. That dollar meant so little to me, who nonetheless is trying to scrimp on them, and apparently so much to him at that moment - whether or not he used it for bus fare. I said a little thank you that I was blessed to be able to do something so inconsequential that meant so much to someone else.

Then I wished I had given him the $5 instead. One measly dollar seemed just not enough.