The funeral of a very well known person took place recently.
And even though this person had garnered a number of enemies over the years, it seemed that only nice things were said about him, including in the news preceding the funeral .
One of the aspects of this person’s life that came out was the number of times he had helped others with no expectation of reward. He often chose to remain anonymous – apparently so he would not make others feel any obligation towards him.
I wonder how many people have helped out others without any expectation of personal benefit or public praise. Philanthropists in particular seem to relish public praise for donations they make from their own excess.
Only one situation comes to my mind where I observed a person being extraordinarily kind and generous to another, without taking any credit for it. Even to this day, I am still impressed by this person’s actions and have been curious to know what prompted his generous act.
We were traveling and had stopped by a chain restaurant for a quick lunch. Seated across the isle from us was an older couple, and in the booth next to ours was a family with two children. As we were finishing our meal, the waiter dropped off the bills for the other parties near us. The older couple quickly expressed concern over the amount of their bill. The waitress took the bill and said she would check it out. A short time later she approach the family of four and explained she had inadvertently switched their bills. To my surprised, the guy looked at his real bill and then announced he would pay for both of them. With that, he got up and left and paid for both meals on his way out the door!
We hung around to see what would happen next. Eventually, the older couple asked the waiter what the status was concerning their bill. The waiter explained their bill was taken care of. The couple told the waiter they only wanted to dispute the amount, and was not asking the restaurant to pay for their whole meal. The waiter explained that the family at the other table actually paid their bill – not the restaurant. The older couple was a bit shocked (as was I) that a stranger would pay for their lunch and leave without a word.
But apparently there are nice people who do nice things for others, without expectation of payback – well, at least not payback in this life.
1 comment:
Our Youth group used to have a tradition when they went on trips of paying not only their own toll but also the toll for the car behind them. "Random Acts of Kindness" was what they labeled it. I wonder how many of those kids grew up & continued to do those kinds of things for strangers. Perhaps the family who paid for the couple's meal was from one such church Youth group! :)
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