A random act of kindness - story

[young Nut]

I was told this story by my Aunt about a week ago, and I decided I had to share it.

My grandparents are some of the nicest and friendliest people you will ever meet. They are in their mid-80's now and are about to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary later this month. They are not financially rich, but they certainly don't have any money trouble. My grandfather draws from one of the best pensions that I've heard of and they both recieve social security checks (something I don't think most of us will ever get).

So a little over a week ago, my grandparents were taking their weekly shopping trip to Wal-Mart to pick up food for the week. They had done their shopping and were heading towards the checkout counter. My grandmother noticed a man walking behind them and getting suspiciously closer as they approached the counter. From what she told me, she was concerned that the man was going to try and steal her pin number as she used her card.

So as she went to pay for the items with her card, she shielded the keypad so that the man couldn't see her pin. As she was enacting her plan to foil the thief, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a $100 bill and handed it to the cashier. Then he turned to my grandparents and simply said, "God bless you," and then walked out the front doors.

Needless to say, my grandparents were a little shocked and in disbelief. According to my grandmother's account of the story, the cashier gave a smile to the man as he handed her the money, as if she was clued in on what the man planned to do.

There are many ways to speculate on what might drive this man to do something like this. Perhaps it was a religious experience for him; sort of sacrificing monetary good to help out his fellow neighbors. Perhaps the man is very well off and decided to help some nice elderly folks out. Perhaps the man does this once a week? It is interesting to speculate, but unless my grandparents ever see the man again, we will probably never know.

What is also interesting is how a potential thief in the eyes of a normal American turned out to be just a man performing a random act of kindness. I think this is what shocked my grandmother the most. She was in fear of a man trying to rob her when her perception of people was turned upside down.

I always love hearing stories like this, but I love sharing them just as much.

*for the tl/dr crowd: a guy at wal-mart comes out of the blue and hands the cashier $100 to pay for my grandparents groceries, then leaves.

[ItalianFX]

I saw a guy drop a dollar the other day in a parking lot and I told him he dropped it. He said thanks, but didn't give me the dollar. If I would have known he wasn't going to give it to me, I would have waited for him to drive away and then I would have picked it up. j/k I didn't expect him to give it to me.

[Jorge10]

Great Story.

[punkass]

This type of stuff never happens to me.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

Which Walmart?

[Mitternacht]

I worked retail for a while and while I was bagging for a pregnant cashier we had a guest go through who struck up a friendly conversation about the baby and how the cashier was preparing to be a single mom. The woman left and we moved onto the next customer when about three minutes later one of the baggers that was outside collecting carts came in with a piece of paper for the cashier. It was a note that said, "I've been where you are and I know how hard it is. Hope this helps. P.S. Someday I hope you can help someone too." Inside was $300 cash for the cashier. She was overcome with emotion and I had to take over her register so she could collect herself.

I saw lots of real bastards while working retail. But that one lady made up for an awful lot of them.

[inside??]

I always wanted to "make it rain" singles from the upper deck of a baseball game. You would be surprised how much effort people will give into trying to get a free dollar.

[tomdemaine]

Was it a friday?

[HitHard69]

Just payin' it forward

[.Alex.]

He probably did steal the pin but decided to give a little rakeback.