The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about the life of Zacchaeus before he met with Jesus except that he was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy. He was a thief and therefore was extremely wealthy. Wealth went with the job, as riches were gained by over-taxing the Jews. No wonder the collectors were hated and chief ones hated even more.
I ponder what he was really like as a man. He might have been a pleasant person who just needed to make a living. He might have been the least hated of all the collectors. We will never know. All this was irrelevant once he met up with Jesus. The Bible tells us that by way of repentance, he said, ‘here and now I give half my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anyone out of anything I will pay back four times the amount.’ Luke 19:8
Do the maths! He couldn’t have cheated people four-fold but that was what he was willing to pay back and then he gave away half his wealth to the poor. (He wasn’t just tithing!) Now poverty was facing him in the face as well as a possible loss of a job. . What a change Jesus had made in his life, materially poor but spiritually rich.