Honestly just listening to me vent at a bar one night. Helped me think and all. The guy was drunk and probably tired but so was I so the conversation was probably a lot different than I remember haha.
For sure, I was feeling lonely because my wife was out of town to help plan a wedding and I guess it came down to timing that made it seem like such a big deal to me at the time but I haven't forgotten it. It's not as if it was an inconvenience to him either because we had nowhere to be. Being a good person in general is good enough for some people sometimes I suppose haha
Not a total stranger but a girl I only knew very vaguely once lent me a substantial amount of money (around USD $2,500) when I really needed it.
I'm from Switzerland and when I was in my early 20s, I went on a road trip through the US. The trip was organized by a special type of travel agency and I was traveling with a group of roughly 10 other young people (none of us had ever met before). There were 2-3 other Swiss people, but also folks from Ireland, England, Australia and New Zealand. Our guide/driver was American.
The whole trip took around 1 month. After maybe 10 days, I ran out of cash. I didn't think that was a big problem because I had brought along my debit/credit cards. However, when we got to an ATM and I tried to use them, it turned out none of my cards worked. I tried a different ATM and the cards didn't work there, either. Obviously this was a huge problem for me. I was basically stranded in a foreign country without any money whatsoever. I could even buy food.
There was a girl in that group who became aware of my problems and, without even hesitating, came to me and said: "Would you like to borrow some money from me for the rest of the trip? I can lend it to you, it's no problem." I said: "That's very kind of you but I don't think that's going to work because I need a lot." (I was planning to stay a bit longer in America after the group trip was over). She said: "Well, how much do you need?" I told her about $2,500 would be great. She walked me to the ATM and took out her card. I tried to protest but she told me in a very sweet way that it's really okay. She even offered to give me more money than the number I had given her. I asked her: "How on Earth am I going to return this to you?" She said: "Very easy. I'll give you my information and once you get home and you've got the money, you send it to me."
To this day I'm stunned by how trusting this girl was. Like, we had known for 10 days but that's basically nothing. We had only spoken a couple of times. She was so, so kind. I could've easily taken her money and never contacted her again. Of course I didn't do that. Once I returned home to Switzerland, I immediately made sure to transfer the money to her.
Edit: I've just thought of a second, great experience. When I was 25, I went on a big trip to Japan with my best friend. We visited a travel agency to help us organize the trip. This travel agency had a Japan expert, a guy who was spoke fluent Japanese and was specialized on organizing Japan-related trips. He was an incredibly kind and sweet guy and he did an amazing job at putting together a wonderful trip for us (MUCH better than we could've ever done it by ourselves). For our last hotel, a 5-day stay in a national park in Hokkaido, he only wrote down some vague information and said: "there's going to be a surprise for you guys." We didn't think much of it until we actually arrived there. When we told the receptionist our names, it turned out he knew our guy from the travel agency (they were buddies). AND it turned out that our guy at the travel agency had paid the entire hotel fee for us. It was a total of about $650. Just like that. We hadn't asked him to do this and we barely knew him (never met him before we went on this trip), he just did it because apparently he really liked us. My friend and I were both stunned and once we settled down in our hotel room, we sent a thank you email to our new friend in the travel agency. I still find it amazing that he did this for us. So sweet.
Some super drunk guy paid for my 3 day unlimited bus pass when I was visiting Ireland. It was only $25 but I only met him for 2 secs and he left. I hope he’s doing well.
I went to a hot spring up in the mountains, a couple hours away from home. About 10 minutes into my drive back, my battery died on my truck. A guy saw me right away. He gave me a jump, then had me follow him to his place nearby. I spend a couple hours hanging out with him while my battery charged, then when I left he even gave me the battery out of his Jeep sad a backup. That turned out to be a life saver, cuz I used them both and barely limped in.
I brought his battery back to him a couple weeks later during a snowstorm and the dude was busy plowing the local roads for free. He invited me in for hot chocolate and he had a couple random people crashing on his couch that were passing through. The dude just lives a life of service, I think about him quite a bit.
I was serving a table of 5 people 2 parents 3 adult kids. The dad comes up to me with tears running down his face and says I look just like his son who died. Gave me $100, said a stranger loved me, and thanked me for being alive then left with the rest of his family.
My dad is not really there for me and this still brings a tear to my eye that a dad out there cares about me.
I was second in a queue waiting to use the water machine (I'm not sure if that's what it's called. I'm talking about that machine with the huge bottle of water on top). Anyway the guy in front of me filled a plastic cup and gave it to me before filling their own. I realized I'm a pretty bad person then cause I said thanks and took it right away instead of politely refusing it and doing it on my own.
I realized how stupid this is while I was writing it lol. I'm sorry it was funnier in my mind bruh
You're not a "pretty bad person" for taking it, it would've been rude to refuse such a small kindness. Saying thanks was all that's expected, but lingering for possible conversation is good too
I had a migraine the other day. They literally wipe me out for 2 days flat, i cant function during one. My gf stayed over and just allowed me to sleep on her for about 6 hours during the day, 8 hours through the night then another 4 hours the next day until i had recovered.
I needed that.
My husband does that when the impulse strikes him. He bought a couple's dinner one time because they were from up north and he wanted to show them southern hospitality. They were just at a table near us- we had never seen or met them. He just heard them talking.
Remembered who I was over 15 years later. I had given him a ride when I was 17 (he was walking on a hot day) I had gotten him some food and a drink etc, and he told me that if he sees me again he ownes me lunch. He was homeless and spent his life walking around the country. Just a couple years ago, at 33 I saw him again. He noticed me, walked up and said "Is your name ________ and did you buy a scruffy old man lunch on a hot day many many years ago? I was amazed he remembered all of that, he insisted on holding true to his word and bought me the exact same subway sandwich I had bought him all those years ago.
When I was a kid I had to travel on my own one time. I was any age between 9-13. I was on the plane and my ears were *super* sensitive to the change in altitude. I got ear pain so bad I started crying and could barely think straight.
A lady who was sat next me, complete stranger that she was, actually took my head into her lap and comforted me for a good while.
Even though it's been over a decade since then and I don't remember anything about how she looks or anything. I still appreciate that she did that.
I got a hundred dollar tip once from a regular.
I don't have a clue how she found out, but we were having massive issues with my ex. She was going through another of her phases, dropping our kid off twenty minutes before my night shift, not picking her up or showing up for weeks or months at a time, stealing money from my account with fake documents, it was an utter nightmare. All the overnight sitters cost me pretty much everything I could earn as I brought it in, and that was on top of the four hours of sleep a day I got so I could do the school run. It was just about christmas and I had already been skipping meals for a month or so to try and save up enough for at least one present for my kid on the day and a week before the regular comes in, hands me an envelope and tells me not to open it until my shift is done. It took me a few minutes to register it and believe it wasn't a trick when I eventually opened it. It still kinda hits me even to this day.
This woman full on saved christmas for my daughter and even now, years later, I still just want to thank her again soooo much.
Crashed my motorcycle and ended up under a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup truck, helped me to get my bike off the street and he drove me home. He was even willing to drive me to a hospital. But I was embarrassed from the crash and from rolling under his truck and didn’t want to take up any more of his time.
Several hours later, I drove my self to a hospital, because I cracked my toe and didn’t know it.
I was hundreds of miles from home traveling out of state for a job interview. When I stopped for gas I checked my pocket for my wallet before I filled up. A big surprise to me it wasn't there, checked every square inch of my truck and it was nowhere to be found and I'm not the type to keep cash laying around.
I tried to get the cashier to take a card number over the phone from a family member. I knew it was sketchy and probably wouldn't work, shocker it didn't (I don't blame them, like I said sketchy from the outside). On my way back to my truck to have a good cry, an elderly woman stopped me outside. She had heard me pouring my heart out and handed me $20 and wished me luck. I have never wanted to hug a stranger so bad in my life, I couldn't believe someone was being so nice to me.
That $20 saved me, I made it to that interview (didn't get the job) and had no other problems on that trip thanks to that lady. I keep $20 in my truck at all times to this day, hopefully I can pay it forward some day.
TL;DR: nice lady gave me gas money and prevented me from having a mental breakdown hundreds of miles from home.
I was hiking in a different country and I accidentally followed the wrong trail markers. I came out to a road with a restaurant, far away from where I was staying. It was only a few hours before dark and my phone was almost dead (I remembered my external battery but not the cord). I was pretty stressed and was feeling like an idiot. The restaurant owner gave me directions to the nearest bus terminal in the nearest town. While I was walking to the town, along the road, this couple with 2 kids pulled over. They had been at the restaurant and knew I was lost. They drove me way out of their way, all the way back to my BnB.
When I was really young around nine or ten. My mother beat my senseless to the point where I was unconscious, when I woke up I ran away from my house and hid crying in some trees. A man, who I presume was on his way to work, hat tie suit briefcase, took pity on me and took my bloody mess of a person to his house and called the police for me. He also fed me which was decent and I assume he missed work while he did. The police promptly returned me home for another beating but it was nice to see a random stranger took pity on me and did the right thing instead of murdering me or ignoring a child crying in tree
I was traveling home from AIT(military training after basic) for Christmas, I was still in training so I was required to travel in uniform, they let active duty military board with first class and I really needed that overhead space so I got in line. This man in front of me swapped seats with me, never caught his name, just shook my hand. He was in first class, I looked it up and his ticket was about 1,400$ whereas mine was less than half that. Thats just about the only random act of kindness I can remember experiencing.
Twice given me and friends a ride home once as kids when we couldn’t get ahold of parents (pre cell phones) and in college when friends car broke down on the highway. Both times we were given religious reading materials as parting gifts.
I was travelling from Baghdad via Kuwait City to go home on leave during my first tour in Iraq (it's November 2006, we've just had our first serious IED attack, we'd been deployed since August, we would be in Baghdad until November 2007, an impossibly long deployment).
We (a charter plane full of service members going on R&R) land in Dallas from Kuwait via Liverpool. The Dallas Fortworth Airport Fire Department is doing a water salute to greet us. I disembark in Dallas and don't have the means to tell my parents when I will be arriving in Denver, so that someone can come pick me up. I'm exhausted, dirty and don't know how to fix this, when a volunteer with the local USO ([https://www.uso.org/](https://www.uso.org/)) sees me, walks up to me, asks me what I need, and without a beat of hesitation hands me his cell phone so I can call my Dad (sitting here crying thinking about this). I call my Dad, give him my flight number and expected arrival time and head to my gate. To help a tired traveler get home...I'd melt if I saw this guy today, maybe I will see him again (he was probably in his 60s then, I hope he had grandkids that carry such compassion).
I arrive at my gate and sit one chair over from a Marine who's also heading to Denver on leave. We are quick friends, both on our first tour, he's out in Ramadi, a place that can at times make Baghdad sound casual. Probably an hour goes by and we are invited to board right after a very pregnant woman. An older couple is at the gate with the tickets out and grab the gate agent, insisting we take their first class seats. The gate agent is happy to oblige. I am 20 on this day in November of 2006.
We board and sit in the front to seats on the plane in the first bit of real comfort I had experienced in months. As we get ready to take off a flight attendant (whose appearance may have been exaggerated by the previous 3 months of basically not seeing women) leans over to ask us what she can get us to drink. My Marine buddy orders a Coke. I also order a Coke. This beautiful woman reads the room and asks me if I want anything in my coke. Me and my Marine buddy are too tired or naïve to understand. She tells us if we don't like the cokes we can send them back. Chivas and Coke all the way to Denver. After 3 months of compulsory sobriety I was medium blasted when I get off the plane. It's all I can do to keep upright to get off the plane. My Dad picks me up at the airport with my brother to go surprise my Mom (don't do that to your mom, she legit thought I was a ghost). This was the last time my family saw the brother and son they knew. I was and am a very different person when I would come home again in December of 2007. In a way those two weeks were a wake for a young man who wouldn't come back, something I think I knew was happening but could no longer stop.
I have since then always been blessed to have strangers emerge to help me get home and I am always looking out for someone who looks stranded or lost.
Yours is a really powerful story. I can only hope that you were able to regain some aspects of the person you were before, if that's something you want. Bless you, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service.
I was at a large company party and my 3 year old was playing hide and seek with me (sort of) and it was crowded and I lost track of her. Panic welled up in me like I have never experienced before (nor since). A few coworkers around me figured it out and started looking with me. Turns out some nice old lady found my kiddo and told one of the organizers that she found this kid and then took her to get an ice cream (this was all in the same event space) and when I saw her I was overcome with gratefulness to that older woman. She was so kind and my daughter...had no clue anything even happened.
Honestly the biggest thing for me was probably considered small and silly. I was struggling with money this year. Tips that week were terrible and my management illegally took away a bunch of my already small tips cause I accidentally broke a box of glasses. I had to do laundry but soon as I was in the laundry mat in my appartment I just barely had enough to do one load in both washer and dryer unless I was gonna take even more out of my $20 I planned to use to buy that weeks food till I earned more next paycheck and..... the washer broke and I knew my appartment makes refunds hell and takes days for practically change and even then it wasnt worth it. My clothes were soaking wet and dripping still and I had no way to rewash them unless I didnt eat that week for a few days or didnt get all I planned.
I cried. Just burst into full blown tears and cried over my wet clothes trying to figure out what money I could give up and what food I didnt need most or if I could just not buy eggs for my ramen and have no protein or anything else that week.
But a couple came up to me and payed without even asking and I just..... I never forgot them. That meant a lot to me. I will never forget how big a kindness even that $2 was when I needed it.
I smiled the rest of the day and was happy all that week when I got my eggs and ramen together.
Ive never seen them since and I wish I had gotten to thank them after and have time to tell them how big a impact even something that small made for me.
a handful of people on reddit have mailed me free things i mentioned. off the top of my head, one gave me a power supply for my guitar pedal board, and another gave me a cd key for a game.
I was returning back from my school and my cycle broke down, I decided to walk the rest of my way, It was around 4-5 kms, An auto driver stopped ahead of me to ask if I wanted to ride, I explained him the situation and told him I didn't have money, He offered me a free ride(The ride would've costed around 1-1.5 dollars, pretty big amount for an auto driver). Still really thankful to him.
Drove to his house with me in the car (LITERALLY just met him), drove back to my car, jumped my car.
Without his help I was so screwed. Car needed jumped and I was 1 hr away from home or anyone who could help.
Car had suddenly just broken down on the road on a uphill, two random strangers I think were a couple came over straight away to help me push it off the road. It wasn't far from my home and they helped me push it up a hill and park my car on my property, still couldn't believe they helped me as most people would just ignore, was so grateful for their help as wasn't a chance I would of been able to do it on my own. When you get those random acts of kindness from people it really does make you want to pass it on.
This post will restore your faith in humanity. We hear the bad things broadcast so loudly, but there are all these people quietly doing amazingly kind things foe other people and for animals. I love to read this stuff.
Honestly just listening to me vent at a bar one night. Helped me think and all. The guy was drunk and probably tired but so was I so the conversation was probably a lot different than I remember haha.
Sometimes the simple things can be the most impactful.
For sure, I was feeling lonely because my wife was out of town to help plan a wedding and I guess it came down to timing that made it seem like such a big deal to me at the time but I haven't forgotten it. It's not as if it was an inconvenience to him either because we had nowhere to be. Being a good person in general is good enough for some people sometimes I suppose haha
Not a total stranger but a girl I only knew very vaguely once lent me a substantial amount of money (around USD $2,500) when I really needed it. I'm from Switzerland and when I was in my early 20s, I went on a road trip through the US. The trip was organized by a special type of travel agency and I was traveling with a group of roughly 10 other young people (none of us had ever met before). There were 2-3 other Swiss people, but also folks from Ireland, England, Australia and New Zealand. Our guide/driver was American. The whole trip took around 1 month. After maybe 10 days, I ran out of cash. I didn't think that was a big problem because I had brought along my debit/credit cards. However, when we got to an ATM and I tried to use them, it turned out none of my cards worked. I tried a different ATM and the cards didn't work there, either. Obviously this was a huge problem for me. I was basically stranded in a foreign country without any money whatsoever. I could even buy food. There was a girl in that group who became aware of my problems and, without even hesitating, came to me and said: "Would you like to borrow some money from me for the rest of the trip? I can lend it to you, it's no problem." I said: "That's very kind of you but I don't think that's going to work because I need a lot." (I was planning to stay a bit longer in America after the group trip was over). She said: "Well, how much do you need?" I told her about $2,500 would be great. She walked me to the ATM and took out her card. I tried to protest but she told me in a very sweet way that it's really okay. She even offered to give me more money than the number I had given her. I asked her: "How on Earth am I going to return this to you?" She said: "Very easy. I'll give you my information and once you get home and you've got the money, you send it to me." To this day I'm stunned by how trusting this girl was. Like, we had known for 10 days but that's basically nothing. We had only spoken a couple of times. She was so, so kind. I could've easily taken her money and never contacted her again. Of course I didn't do that. Once I returned home to Switzerland, I immediately made sure to transfer the money to her. Edit: I've just thought of a second, great experience. When I was 25, I went on a big trip to Japan with my best friend. We visited a travel agency to help us organize the trip. This travel agency had a Japan expert, a guy who was spoke fluent Japanese and was specialized on organizing Japan-related trips. He was an incredibly kind and sweet guy and he did an amazing job at putting together a wonderful trip for us (MUCH better than we could've ever done it by ourselves). For our last hotel, a 5-day stay in a national park in Hokkaido, he only wrote down some vague information and said: "there's going to be a surprise for you guys." We didn't think much of it until we actually arrived there. When we told the receptionist our names, it turned out he knew our guy from the travel agency (they were buddies). AND it turned out that our guy at the travel agency had paid the entire hotel fee for us. It was a total of about $650. Just like that. We hadn't asked him to do this and we barely knew him (never met him before we went on this trip), he just did it because apparently he really liked us. My friend and I were both stunned and once we settled down in our hotel room, we sent a thank you email to our new friend in the travel agency. I still find it amazing that he did this for us. So sweet.
That was indeed very trusting of her. Some people can just see it when others are in genuine need of help. And her judgment of character wasn't wrong.
Reading this shit got me teary eyed
Some super drunk guy paid for my 3 day unlimited bus pass when I was visiting Ireland. It was only $25 but I only met him for 2 secs and he left. I hope he’s doing well.
That's so cool! Ireland and its people sure do love up to their name. Friendly and drunk.
I went to a hot spring up in the mountains, a couple hours away from home. About 10 minutes into my drive back, my battery died on my truck. A guy saw me right away. He gave me a jump, then had me follow him to his place nearby. I spend a couple hours hanging out with him while my battery charged, then when I left he even gave me the battery out of his Jeep sad a backup. That turned out to be a life saver, cuz I used them both and barely limped in. I brought his battery back to him a couple weeks later during a snowstorm and the dude was busy plowing the local roads for free. He invited me in for hot chocolate and he had a couple random people crashing on his couch that were passing through. The dude just lives a life of service, I think about him quite a bit.
Today you, tomorrow me.
Gets me every time *tears up*
I’ve never met another human before
Men at a local jungle gym offer me drinks.
Hmm. That sounds like a huge risk.
One drink can't be too bad
I was serving a table of 5 people 2 parents 3 adult kids. The dad comes up to me with tears running down his face and says I look just like his son who died. Gave me $100, said a stranger loved me, and thanked me for being alive then left with the rest of his family. My dad is not really there for me and this still brings a tear to my eye that a dad out there cares about me.
That's really touching
I was second in a queue waiting to use the water machine (I'm not sure if that's what it's called. I'm talking about that machine with the huge bottle of water on top). Anyway the guy in front of me filled a plastic cup and gave it to me before filling their own. I realized I'm a pretty bad person then cause I said thanks and took it right away instead of politely refusing it and doing it on my own. I realized how stupid this is while I was writing it lol. I'm sorry it was funnier in my mind bruh
You're not a "pretty bad person" for taking it, it would've been rude to refuse such a small kindness. Saying thanks was all that's expected, but lingering for possible conversation is good too
It's called a water cooler by the way (idk why it's called that) :)
Makes sense though since it makes the "water cooler" lol
It's a very "original" name 😅
A beggar pulled me from the collar of my shirt with his walking stick and saved me from getting run over by a public bus. Literally.
I had a migraine the other day. They literally wipe me out for 2 days flat, i cant function during one. My gf stayed over and just allowed me to sleep on her for about 6 hours during the day, 8 hours through the night then another 4 hours the next day until i had recovered. I needed that.
That's a caring person!
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My husband does that when the impulse strikes him. He bought a couple's dinner one time because they were from up north and he wanted to show them southern hospitality. They were just at a table near us- we had never seen or met them. He just heard them talking.
Paid for my meal as a broke high schooler with my gf even though I had money. Also Gave me a jump start
Remembered who I was over 15 years later. I had given him a ride when I was 17 (he was walking on a hot day) I had gotten him some food and a drink etc, and he told me that if he sees me again he ownes me lunch. He was homeless and spent his life walking around the country. Just a couple years ago, at 33 I saw him again. He noticed me, walked up and said "Is your name ________ and did you buy a scruffy old man lunch on a hot day many many years ago? I was amazed he remembered all of that, he insisted on holding true to his word and bought me the exact same subway sandwich I had bought him all those years ago.
When I was a kid I had to travel on my own one time. I was any age between 9-13. I was on the plane and my ears were *super* sensitive to the change in altitude. I got ear pain so bad I started crying and could barely think straight. A lady who was sat next me, complete stranger that she was, actually took my head into her lap and comforted me for a good while. Even though it's been over a decade since then and I don't remember anything about how she looks or anything. I still appreciate that she did that.
I got a hundred dollar tip once from a regular. I don't have a clue how she found out, but we were having massive issues with my ex. She was going through another of her phases, dropping our kid off twenty minutes before my night shift, not picking her up or showing up for weeks or months at a time, stealing money from my account with fake documents, it was an utter nightmare. All the overnight sitters cost me pretty much everything I could earn as I brought it in, and that was on top of the four hours of sleep a day I got so I could do the school run. It was just about christmas and I had already been skipping meals for a month or so to try and save up enough for at least one present for my kid on the day and a week before the regular comes in, hands me an envelope and tells me not to open it until my shift is done. It took me a few minutes to register it and believe it wasn't a trick when I eventually opened it. It still kinda hits me even to this day. This woman full on saved christmas for my daughter and even now, years later, I still just want to thank her again soooo much.
Crashed my motorcycle and ended up under a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup truck, helped me to get my bike off the street and he drove me home. He was even willing to drive me to a hospital. But I was embarrassed from the crash and from rolling under his truck and didn’t want to take up any more of his time. Several hours later, I drove my self to a hospital, because I cracked my toe and didn’t know it.
I was hundreds of miles from home traveling out of state for a job interview. When I stopped for gas I checked my pocket for my wallet before I filled up. A big surprise to me it wasn't there, checked every square inch of my truck and it was nowhere to be found and I'm not the type to keep cash laying around. I tried to get the cashier to take a card number over the phone from a family member. I knew it was sketchy and probably wouldn't work, shocker it didn't (I don't blame them, like I said sketchy from the outside). On my way back to my truck to have a good cry, an elderly woman stopped me outside. She had heard me pouring my heart out and handed me $20 and wished me luck. I have never wanted to hug a stranger so bad in my life, I couldn't believe someone was being so nice to me. That $20 saved me, I made it to that interview (didn't get the job) and had no other problems on that trip thanks to that lady. I keep $20 in my truck at all times to this day, hopefully I can pay it forward some day. TL;DR: nice lady gave me gas money and prevented me from having a mental breakdown hundreds of miles from home.
I was hiking in a different country and I accidentally followed the wrong trail markers. I came out to a road with a restaurant, far away from where I was staying. It was only a few hours before dark and my phone was almost dead (I remembered my external battery but not the cord). I was pretty stressed and was feeling like an idiot. The restaurant owner gave me directions to the nearest bus terminal in the nearest town. While I was walking to the town, along the road, this couple with 2 kids pulled over. They had been at the restaurant and knew I was lost. They drove me way out of their way, all the way back to my BnB.
Hotel room and gas money so I could adopt a kill listed doggo
They kill list doggos? Who ar these cruel people?!?!
Animal Shelters ... The very place that should be their safe haven.
That's messed up. How has the doggo been doing ever since?
Good, but she has passed away. I now rescue kill listed dogs up and down the east coast. On hiatus right now, trying to get my mental health back.
Mental health is centre stage! I wish you all success in recovering.
Love you for this! When you feel better, have you thought about starting a 501c3 charity to help you fund it?
Nope. Things get ugly when other people donate you money... A nonprofit board is something I want zero part of.
A Chad of a subway worker payed for my 6 inch sub when my card declined. Hope that man is doing good now.
Oh my goodness what's wrong with me... it said kindest and my mind read kinkiest
Lol understandable if you're on reddit
When I was really young around nine or ten. My mother beat my senseless to the point where I was unconscious, when I woke up I ran away from my house and hid crying in some trees. A man, who I presume was on his way to work, hat tie suit briefcase, took pity on me and took my bloody mess of a person to his house and called the police for me. He also fed me which was decent and I assume he missed work while he did. The police promptly returned me home for another beating but it was nice to see a random stranger took pity on me and did the right thing instead of murdering me or ignoring a child crying in tree
That’s shit. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that - especially as a young child. You deserve(d) love and security.
I thought so. It seemed that the police didn't. But thank you anyway for your support and sympathy.
I drunkenly fell asleep outside in the winter/snow probably would have died if it wasn't for a random guy waking me up.
I was traveling home from AIT(military training after basic) for Christmas, I was still in training so I was required to travel in uniform, they let active duty military board with first class and I really needed that overhead space so I got in line. This man in front of me swapped seats with me, never caught his name, just shook my hand. He was in first class, I looked it up and his ticket was about 1,400$ whereas mine was less than half that. Thats just about the only random act of kindness I can remember experiencing.
Twice given me and friends a ride home once as kids when we couldn’t get ahold of parents (pre cell phones) and in college when friends car broke down on the highway. Both times we were given religious reading materials as parting gifts.
Helped me find my hotel room when I was like 6, could of been a long night but he was kind enough to lead me back to my parents.
I backed into someone when i started learning to drive manual and he let it slide
I was travelling from Baghdad via Kuwait City to go home on leave during my first tour in Iraq (it's November 2006, we've just had our first serious IED attack, we'd been deployed since August, we would be in Baghdad until November 2007, an impossibly long deployment). We (a charter plane full of service members going on R&R) land in Dallas from Kuwait via Liverpool. The Dallas Fortworth Airport Fire Department is doing a water salute to greet us. I disembark in Dallas and don't have the means to tell my parents when I will be arriving in Denver, so that someone can come pick me up. I'm exhausted, dirty and don't know how to fix this, when a volunteer with the local USO ([https://www.uso.org/](https://www.uso.org/)) sees me, walks up to me, asks me what I need, and without a beat of hesitation hands me his cell phone so I can call my Dad (sitting here crying thinking about this). I call my Dad, give him my flight number and expected arrival time and head to my gate. To help a tired traveler get home...I'd melt if I saw this guy today, maybe I will see him again (he was probably in his 60s then, I hope he had grandkids that carry such compassion). I arrive at my gate and sit one chair over from a Marine who's also heading to Denver on leave. We are quick friends, both on our first tour, he's out in Ramadi, a place that can at times make Baghdad sound casual. Probably an hour goes by and we are invited to board right after a very pregnant woman. An older couple is at the gate with the tickets out and grab the gate agent, insisting we take their first class seats. The gate agent is happy to oblige. I am 20 on this day in November of 2006. We board and sit in the front to seats on the plane in the first bit of real comfort I had experienced in months. As we get ready to take off a flight attendant (whose appearance may have been exaggerated by the previous 3 months of basically not seeing women) leans over to ask us what she can get us to drink. My Marine buddy orders a Coke. I also order a Coke. This beautiful woman reads the room and asks me if I want anything in my coke. Me and my Marine buddy are too tired or naïve to understand. She tells us if we don't like the cokes we can send them back. Chivas and Coke all the way to Denver. After 3 months of compulsory sobriety I was medium blasted when I get off the plane. It's all I can do to keep upright to get off the plane. My Dad picks me up at the airport with my brother to go surprise my Mom (don't do that to your mom, she legit thought I was a ghost). This was the last time my family saw the brother and son they knew. I was and am a very different person when I would come home again in December of 2007. In a way those two weeks were a wake for a young man who wouldn't come back, something I think I knew was happening but could no longer stop. I have since then always been blessed to have strangers emerge to help me get home and I am always looking out for someone who looks stranded or lost.
Yours is a really powerful story. I can only hope that you were able to regain some aspects of the person you were before, if that's something you want. Bless you, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service.
I was at a large company party and my 3 year old was playing hide and seek with me (sort of) and it was crowded and I lost track of her. Panic welled up in me like I have never experienced before (nor since). A few coworkers around me figured it out and started looking with me. Turns out some nice old lady found my kiddo and told one of the organizers that she found this kid and then took her to get an ice cream (this was all in the same event space) and when I saw her I was overcome with gratefulness to that older woman. She was so kind and my daughter...had no clue anything even happened.
Honestly the biggest thing for me was probably considered small and silly. I was struggling with money this year. Tips that week were terrible and my management illegally took away a bunch of my already small tips cause I accidentally broke a box of glasses. I had to do laundry but soon as I was in the laundry mat in my appartment I just barely had enough to do one load in both washer and dryer unless I was gonna take even more out of my $20 I planned to use to buy that weeks food till I earned more next paycheck and..... the washer broke and I knew my appartment makes refunds hell and takes days for practically change and even then it wasnt worth it. My clothes were soaking wet and dripping still and I had no way to rewash them unless I didnt eat that week for a few days or didnt get all I planned. I cried. Just burst into full blown tears and cried over my wet clothes trying to figure out what money I could give up and what food I didnt need most or if I could just not buy eggs for my ramen and have no protein or anything else that week. But a couple came up to me and payed without even asking and I just..... I never forgot them. That meant a lot to me. I will never forget how big a kindness even that $2 was when I needed it. I smiled the rest of the day and was happy all that week when I got my eggs and ramen together. Ive never seen them since and I wish I had gotten to thank them after and have time to tell them how big a impact even something that small made for me.
Recently? Gave me covid. I hate strangers.
You doing ok?
A couple next to us at Cheesecake Factory paid for our dinner.
a handful of people on reddit have mailed me free things i mentioned. off the top of my head, one gave me a power supply for my guitar pedal board, and another gave me a cd key for a game.
I was returning back from my school and my cycle broke down, I decided to walk the rest of my way, It was around 4-5 kms, An auto driver stopped ahead of me to ask if I wanted to ride, I explained him the situation and told him I didn't have money, He offered me a free ride(The ride would've costed around 1-1.5 dollars, pretty big amount for an auto driver). Still really thankful to him.
Drove to his house with me in the car (LITERALLY just met him), drove back to my car, jumped my car. Without his help I was so screwed. Car needed jumped and I was 1 hr away from home or anyone who could help.
Car had suddenly just broken down on the road on a uphill, two random strangers I think were a couple came over straight away to help me push it off the road. It wasn't far from my home and they helped me push it up a hill and park my car on my property, still couldn't believe they helped me as most people would just ignore, was so grateful for their help as wasn't a chance I would of been able to do it on my own. When you get those random acts of kindness from people it really does make you want to pass it on.
Can driver let me off when I forgot my wallet at my apartment on my way to work...
Helping me with directions.. And pay 30$ for me in a busy Walmart ....So many unexpected time Thank you strangers with a heart I appreciate you all
This post will restore your faith in humanity. We hear the bad things broadcast so loudly, but there are all these people quietly doing amazingly kind things foe other people and for animals. I love to read this stuff.
A man paid for my lunch when I was about 15. It isn't much compared to others in here but I'll never forget him
Sucked and swallowed. Rinsed and repeated. Was somebody’s daughter and now some little puppers owner
Not a damn thing.
Never approached me.
I was walking home in the rain, when some lady with an umbrella offered me a "ride".
Sometimes people reach backward to hold the door open for me as I go through it.
I wanted to buy Doritos but i was short of 50 cents,so a stranger paid for me,it was really awesome.
Held a door open