Trip to the Market: Submitted by a Reader

The below story was submitted in the Leave Your Story section of this website by a reader.  It’s a short tail of a simple act that resulted in a significant reaction of appreciation and generosity.   It’s a great example as to how easy and rewarding random acts of humanity can be.

“While standing in the check-out line at a supermarket, I observed a woman ahead of me figuring out whether she had enough money to pay for the items she had picked up. There was a gentleman with her. The conversation between them indicated he was an acquaintance who had given her a ride to the supermarket in his vehicle and she, in return, was going to pay for items he wanted from the supermarket. Now it appeared she didn’t have enough money to pay for all they had picked up and she was apologizing to him because they needed to put back some items. She expressed how appreciative she was that he had given her a ride and promised him she would make up for it at another time.

There was nothing extravagant about the scant purchase they were attempting to make and it broke my heart that they couldn’t pay for it. I told the cashier I would pay for the items they were deleting from their order and asked her to ring up the items with my order. The faces of that man and woman lit up as they expressed disbelief that someone was actually doing that for them and they both gushed words of appreciation.”

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