One day, Stuart McDaniel — owner of the marketing firm GuRuStu in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA — had a problem. Mice had appeared in their ground floor office space. After deciding to get a cat, Stewart went to the local animal shelter. He took a six-month-old kitten from the shelter and placed it in the company’s office.

The kitten settled in nicely in his new place. All day long he walked around the office, climbed on computer keyboards and «helped» employees send e-mails that had not yet been written, and caught mice. One day, the firm’s employees discovered something strange. In front of the closed glass doors leading out of the building, there was a pile of small banknotes on the floor, and their cat was sitting next to it. People were puzzled. Where did the little crook get the money from and in such quantity?

The next day, the situation was repeated.

Determined to find out what was going on, the staff began to keep a close eye on the cat and found out the following. During the day, the animal spends a lot of time in front of the glass doors, lounging in the sun. People passing by, wanting to play with an unusual employee, slipped a banknote into the slot, and the cat cleverly snatched it.

It has to be said that the building is in an area with lots of entertainment centres and footpaths. In a day, there is a mass of people passing by the office going nowhere in a hurry. Therefore, there is a lot of money by the end of the evening.

The employees of the company together with the owner decided to let the money «earned» by the cat for a good cause — to give it to the local centre for the homeless. And on the door of the office they put a corresponding announcement. The fame of the philanthropist cat quickly spread outside the city, and people began to send money for charity even by mail and on the Internet.

After discovering this cat’s fondness for cash, he was given the nickname CASHnip (from CASH — cash and CATNIP — catnip).