Next time, be a little careful and a lot more specific with the prayers of being the world's richest person. Chris Reynolds from Pennsylvania was destined to be the world's richest man, without owning any wealth and for a very brief period of time. In 2013, PayPal credited an amount to the tune of 92 quadrillion into his account, by mistake. A quadrillion has 15 zeroes. Making him the no-so-bonafide world's richest person momentarily.
Reynolds, who is from Delaware Country, was beyond baffled when he checked his Paypal account statement in July 2013. A figure he had never seen or heard before had been credited into his account. Running into quadrillions, it was an amount he did not know how to quantify or describe. A number he could never muster from his full time profession of selling auto parts on eBay. Reportedly, the highest account balance he had hitherto seen was a humble $1000.
CNN quoted him as saying that it was a "curious thing" and he thought that "someone was having fun." The short-lived illusion was struck by reality soon enough. Next when Reynolds logged into his account online and his account balance was back to $0.
This is obviously an error: Paypal
In a statement released about the same, Paypal admitted to making a mistake. "This is obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr Reynolds understood this was the case." However, not completely oblivious of the cruelty of the prank, PayPal offered to donate an undisclosed amount of money to a charity chosen by Reynolds. The digital payments company said, "We think it's inspiring that he decided to use this occurrence to donate to a cause he believes in and we hope to honor this spirit by donating to a cause of his choice — we've reached out to him to make this offer and to let him know that we are grateful that he is a customer."
In a not-so-parallel universe
Even though for a very brief moment of time, but Chris Reynolds overtook the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, often in a tug of war for being the richest person in the world. Last week, Amazon founder Bezos dethroned Tesla CEO Musk as the richest person in the world, with Bezos' fortune totalling $ 200.3 billion dollar. A billion has nine zeros. Well, Reynolds' account had 15 digits at some point in time.
