How did he lose all his money if the people ended up not taking it?

Nathan was going to give customers $100 (of his own money) each if they didn't think some hamburger was the best in L.A. When they starterted to say the bugers weren't the best, he showed them some poor old woman who was going to be laid off if they all took the $100 bills so none of them ended up taking the money.

Nathan said the day was a success for the store as they had tons of customers. But it was a failure for Nathan because he had to give away $6000 of his own money.

But he didn't give his money away because they didn't take it when they saw the old lady.

Or did some of them take it, did I miss that?

Or was Nathan trying to make the guy feel bad by not letting him know?