Restores your faith in human nature

When I was young and naïve I hitchhiked with a friend to see a band we loved, about 60-70 miles away. The next day [we stayed at a youth hostel] we fell out and I stormed off and tried to hitchhike home in the middle of nowhere.

A man stopped, I got in. He asked me questions and then after about 10 miles he stopped outside a shop gave me money and told me to buy a bar of chocolate. I did.

He then drove me to a railway station gave me the money for a train ticket and said 'Buy a ticket to get home, go home and never hitch hike again!'....I did.

I did hitchhike again, but when I'd met my husband, it was such a common thing to do then. But I never forgot the kindness of the man who picked me up.

It could have been a different story as it was in the area which was the hunting ground of Fred West and around the time he was living there. I was such an idiot.

Such a sweet gesture, lucky. That sort of thing makes your day, doesn't it?

I was once a newcomer to a village and using the local shop for the first time. When I got to the check out and realised I’d forgotten my purse. The amount was about just under £5. The woman behind me passed me a £5 note and said ‘you’ve just moved in down the road from me, drop it off anytime’.

I did and stayed for a coffee and that developed into a friendship that lasts to this day even though we no longer live near each other.

Too many "lovely' s " there, but I think you know what I mean!

Yes, it's lovely to hear about these lovely things. I agree with annesixty that it is nice to talk about the good things that happen in our world. It makes us realise that not all is wrong in our life. Little acts of kindness make all the difference. ?

That is so lovely Lucky. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. At our hospital you pay on leaving and the machine accepts cards. However one day when I’d taken my daughter to an ante-natal appointment the machine was faulty and wouldn’t accept cards. We were rummaging in our purses and found ourselves 50p short. I was about to go back to the hospital to use the cashpoint (a fair walk) when a kind gentleman behind me held out 50p. I hesitated, but he said simply “please, take it - it’s a gift”. It brightened both our days that there are such good people.

I had the same thing with 50p some years ago, when trying to buy a metro ticket from a machine in Newcastle. Ever since, I have tried to 'pass on' the good turn as others have suggested.

Just this morning, I was saved from a lot of inconvenience when i unknowingly left my debit card at the supermarket checkout. Just as I was about to get in my car, a customer came running up to me to tell me, and as I made my way back into the shop, several other customers stopped me and directed me to customer services as my card was now there. In a small shop, none of this would have been surprising, but in a very large and very busy Tesco, I was amazed that so many people went out of their way to help a total stranger, and equally surprised that so many knew that I was the person who had left the card behind - unless they were all in the queue behind me and got delayed while the cashier dealt with it
Anyway, that's another reason for me to keep passing on good turns when I get the chance.

It's nice to know there's still good, kind people out there

A few years ago I was trying to buy a book of stamps from the local convienece store they had none a young man next to me in the queue told me he had a couple in his wallet and refused to take any money for them

I've had this too when I didn't have change for our town's automatic loos. And like others, I've paid busfare for strangers when they've got a driver who won't accept a £10 note. It'd have spoilt my day if they'd been left at the stop, with half an hour to wait.

Welshwife that is a good way to put it. Just suggest you are passing on a little good deed to help someone in your turn.

Paying forward - maybe you will get some opportunity to help someone out sometime.
I was in a small supermarket and the lady in front of me was several Euros short of the money she needed so I paid it for her - she didn’t quite know how to react - but I just said to her maybe you will get the chance to help someone else.
Nice to be able to help someone at times.

The kindness of strangers!

What a lovely gesture Luckygirl people amaze me at times by their kindness and generosity.We should post more often about kindness, we tend to concentrate on the negatives. It makes a good story to inflame indignation.

Don’t you just love people?