Poor Woman Buys Cheap Toilet from Online Marketplace and Gets Confused Finding Stash Inside — Story of the Day

A poor woman wanting to replace a broken toilet in her bathroom was inspecting the toilet she bought from an online seller when she found a life-changing rag cloth bundle stashed inside the toilet's tank.

They say someone's trash is another's treasure, and who wouldn't love a rags-to-riches story? For some unsuspecting people like Madison native Eva Hayes, her "rags" fetched her more than just a jackpot.

Eva had always wanted to buy something useful from the flea market. But she never found the time to shop because she often waitressed overtime. So when she wanted to replace an old, broken toilet in her bathroom, she turned to an online marketplace to find an affordable one.

She knew it was an awkward idea, but she kept looking. Surprisingly, she found a certain Dorothy Perkins on Facebook with an ad listed for the sale of household items, including a toilet that was never installed or used.

Eva was delighted to get the toilet for a steal, yet clueless that she was about to make a startling discovery of a lifetime...

"Hey, hon...Are you going to meet the seller today? We talked about it last week, remember?" Eva's husband, Stan Hayes, asked her. He was a chef at a local restaurant and worked overtime to beef up their savings.

"Stan...Come here...quick... Look what I found in our new toilet!" She gasped in shock, staring at the dream-come-true discovery in the toilet's tank.

The couple had been caught up settling their debts and struggled to keep their savings up. Moreover, the last few months had been tormenting for Eva and Stan, mainly after they lost their child due to complications in childbirth.

It still hurt them whenever they talked about removing the crib from the nursery next to their compact bedroom, but they couldn't just do it. A lot of dreams and baby planning were attached to that crib.

Although Stan was ready to have their next baby and fill the void left by their late newborn, he waited for Eva to come out of their loss, and he didn't rush.

"I think you should leave early because the good stuff gets sold pretty fast," he alerted Eva, who was getting ready. She and Stan had their days off, so Eva had decided to meet the online seller while Stan stayed home and cooked her favorite steamed crabs.

"I'm happily gonna blow away my savings on that toilet!" Eva joked, kissing Stan bye. But little did she know what she was about to bring home.

After a 30-minute-drive across the city, Eva paraded the street and reached Dorothy's house.

"Shall I get that antique gramophone too?" she thought, seeing the different antique pieces up for sale on the lawn. Since Eva wanted only the toilet, she sighed disappointment and walked into the house to check its condition.

"With $100, I can only buy this. I need to keep the rest for some groceries," she mumbled upon entering and was awed after looking at the different items on sale. There were dressers and almirahs, coffee and side tables, and a TV stand assembled for sale for a steal price. She sighed and asked the woman to show her the toilet.

"That looks decent for...how much did you say it costs?" she asked Dorothy. They were inside a bathroom where the toilet was sitting uninstalled.

"It's $40...I was supposed to use it in this bathroom, but I decided to renovate this space and turn it into a room that I can rent out..." the woman explained.

"Oh, really?" Eva said. "I like it. It seems brand new to me. $40, and the deal is sealed!" she said, extending the money, and she gave her address to Dorothy so the toilet could be delivered to her home.

"Oh, you're back? I must say...I'm so proud of you, darling. I wish every man gets a wife like you who can shop fast!" Stan joked after seeing Eva home so soon. "Where is our new toilet?"

"They should deliver it within the day. And I didn't get anything else. She was selling a lot of other stuff, but I didn't have enough money. I just got us a toilet."

"Well, I'm excited to see it...And I hope it's new and clean just like how she claimed," Stan said.

A few hours later, a pickup van pulled over outside their house. A porter followed Stan into the house with the toilet.

"Here, come this way. Please place it here," Stan instructed. He arranged for the plumber to install it over the weekend.

Later that evening, Eva took a rag cloth to clean the dust off the toilet. She wiped the entire toilet clean and opened the flush tank to inspect it.

Of course, it looked crisp and clean. But as Eva was about to close the lid, she noticed something like a rag cloth bundle in the tank. "What is this?" she exclaimed and reached inside the tank to pick it up.

"Why isn't it coming off?" she muttered as she struggled to remove the rag from the tank. After a little more struggle, she managed to detach it from the tank, and with the force, it took to remove it, it accidentally slipped from her grasp and dropped to the floor, making a rattling sound. She was baffled and picked it up.

"Weird! I just heard a sharp noise," she said, shaking the cloth near her ear. Curious, Eva unwrapped the cloth and gasped in shock. "Stan...Come here!... Quick!... Look what I found in our new toilet!" she gasped in shock, staring at the dream-come-true discovery in the toilet's tank. In no time, Stan came running to see why she was screaming.

"Wha-what is it, honey? Why are you shouting?" he asked her, only to freeze in shock after seeing her holding a pair of diamond earrings and a chain. "Where did you find these? Oh my God, they look expensive!"

Eva and Stan were startled. They realized that the diamond jewelry could be worth thousands of dollars. And considering their present financial crisis, it was a solid jackpot.

"Should we keep them, or....?" Stan nervously asked. Although Eva knew how this fortune could change their lives, her heart didn't allow her to keep it. She wondered how it got there. Then she recalled overhearing Dorothy asking someone about the jewelry that afternoon.

"Stan, I think that woman was looking for this jewelry set. I heard her ask the porters to immediately inform her if they found any valuables in the house. It has to be hers. I have to go now and return it!"

Honest and selfless, Eva immediately left for Dorothy's house to return the jewels. But just as she neared the doorstep, she overheard a startling conversation. It urged her to immediately back off with the jewels.

"My mean sister died without telling me where she hid that diamond jewelry set she inherited from our late mom. I asked her daughter, but the girl said she didn't know anything. I have to get my hands on the jewels before anyone else. I searched every item before selling them, but those jewels are still missing," Dorothy was saying.

By now, Eva knew where this was heading. The woman had sold the items that belonged to her late sister, Anna.

As it turned out, after Anna's husband died of cancer, her daughter, Pristine, was diagnosed with an ailment in her heart that needed immediate surgery.

Anna had spent all her savings to treat Pristine. She had decided to sell the diamond jewelry to afford her daughter's heart surgery, but Anna suddenly died in a car accident a month ago, leaving her daughter alone and the diamond jewels to be found by fate.

Since Dorothy inherited the house with Anna, she had an equal share in it. She claimed it after Anna's death and sold all the old items to make more money.

"My sister always knew I wanted that jewelry set," Eva heard Dorothy say. "Even on her deathbed, she refused to tell me where she'd hidden them. She told me it was in a safe place to save her dying daughter's life. I was so angry, and did she think I would take care of her sick little orphan? No way! That's what foster homes are for!"

At this point, Eva realized that Anna's daughter was in a foster home. She grew worried and rushed home with the jewelry.

"What? Are you kidding me? How can that woman be so cruel to her niece? We have to report this," Stan said, fuming after hearing Eva out.

"No, no...We need to stay calm and first find the girl. Her mother wanted to save her life, and we need to find her before it's too late," Eva said, confused about how she would find Pristine. Then, she got an idea and decided to meet Dorothy the next day.

"Oh, Mrs. Hayes. What brought you back again? Is everything alright? Did you install the toilet?" Dorothy asked.

"Eh, hello, Mrs. Perkins. I just came back because I think I may have forgotten my wallet here yesterday. Could I just look inside, if you don't mind?"

"Oh, not at all. Please come with me," Dorothy said, unaware of why Eva had come.

For the next few minutes, Eva pretended to look for her wallet. When she saw Dorothy walk away to attend to a phone call, she checked the drawers and every nook and corner for clues about Pristine's whereabouts. Just then, she found an address to a foster home out of town and a little girl's photo in the drawer.

"This must be the girl," she said, sneaking the visiting card and photo into her pocket. Then she greeted Dorothy goodbye, saying she didn't find her wallet.

Eva and Stan immediately drove to the foster home and looked for the girl who resembled the one in the photo. "There, she's the one," Eva said, approaching a little girl crying in a corner.

"Hey, there. What is your name?" she asked the girl, who looked to be around six.

"Pristine," the girl said in tears.

"Your mom's name is Anna, am I right?"

"H-how do you know my mom?"

"Well, that's a long story. But for now, you should come with us when the right time comes," Eva said.

Stan and Eva agreed to adopt Pristine. Considering it was a tedious time-consuming process, they first focused on saving money for her surgery. They talked to Pristine's caretakers and offered to pay for her operation. Since nobody had adopted the little girl yet and her life was in danger, the caretakers agreed.

The couple worked very hard for the next couple of months to save money for Pristine's surgery. They worked overtime, and two months later, they saved around $3,500. That amount, added with the $27K they got from selling the diamond jewels, contributed to Pristine's successful heart surgery.

The news of Pristine's operation soon reached her aunt Dorothy's ears. She rushed to the hospital to see her and was startled when she saw Eva and Stan.

"Mrs. Hayes?" she shrieked. "What are you doing here? And who is he?"

"Hello, Mrs. Perkins. Meet Stan...He is my husband," Eva said, smiling.

"What? Does that mean you paid for Pristine's operation? You knew all this while she was my niece?"

"I was just doing my duty as a human with a heart," Eva retorted. "I just fulfilled her mother's wish and saved her life, thanks to the diamond jewelry I found in the toilet!"

"Diamond jewelry? In the toilet?" Dorothy yelled in disappointment. "You should have given them to me!"

"Give them to you?" Eva retorted. "They did not belong to you. And you should be thankful that I didn't report you to the police. And you are not taking the girl anywhere. We are adopting her."

Dorothy was startled. Before things backfired, she stormed out, cursing her late sister for hiding the jewels in the toilet.

Meanwhile, Stan and Eva looked at Pristine and sighed relief. They realized that she was the little miracle that had arrived in their lives to fill the void left behind by their dead baby. Eventually, Pristine recovered while the couple laid the groundwork for her adoption. After a two-year wait and tedious formalities, they legally adopted the little girl. Pristine now lives a joyful life with her parents, Eva and Stan!

What can we learn from this story?

• Your little act of kindness and selflessness can make a huge difference in someone's life. Although Eva could have kept the diamond earrings to herself and gotten rid of her financial woes, she decided to return them to the owner. Her honesty ended up saving an innocent girl's life in the end.
• Evil deeds and greed only reap disappointment. After her sister died, Dorothy sent her ailing niece to a foster home and was only after the hidden diamond jewels. But in the end, she got nothing but disappointment for being greedy.

A homeless man who abandoned his sister 38 years ago unexpectedly showed up at her doorstep with a strange box. He claimed it belonged to her and was from their late father. Click here to learn more about the secret stashed in this box for decades.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.