What's the kindest thing a stranger has done for you?

In a church this summer in Italy, I could hear a young woman sobbing quietly. Nobody cries alone on my watch, so I put my arm around the poor girl and hugged her. (Must have terrified the poor thing!)

Ooh, and I lost my phone (muppet) and just assumed it was gone for good. A lovely woman found it, somehow contacted my provider (I don't knwo if she'd phoned a number of providers or what), who knew that I'd registered my phone as lost, so they contacted me, gave me her number, and we met and I got my phone back. It was just SO sweet - she didn't have to do that, she could have just handed it in at a lost property office or something, but she said she thought if it happened to her she'd be gutted to lose photos, so she'd tried to track me.

A guy in the street saw us walking with toddler DS. He was just about to take his grandchildren's old dolls house to the tip. Gave it to us. It was in great nick and would have cost a fortune to buy similar. Always remember him when the kids are playing with it

Very simple. A young guy on the till in Waitrose. He spoke to me so politely and kindly I felt myself start to cry. I must be surrounded by some very abrasive people to be stunned by sweetness and politeness!

There is an old gentleman that comes every tuesday without fail to lay lovely red roses on his wifes grave. Anyway one Tuesday he wasn't there and I thought he must have died and felt sad, he turned up on the Thursday and I said I missed you on Tuesday and he was delighted that he was missed as he's very lonely and thanked me for looking out for him, warmed my cockles it did...

Aw this is all sooo nice.

Top tip for you all - the warm glow of doing a good deed is even warmer if you treat it as a sort of dare and try to get away with no one knowing it was you. So no thanks, no aren't-you-marvellous.

I tidied up the war memorial yesterday as either some ferocious winds/hoodlums had scattered all the wreaths. And I left some apples for some elderly neighbours on their doorstep. And gave some sage anonymously to a native american who used to meditate to the smell and misses it.

Feeling positively scorching . I just think it's nice when people can wonder who it was. And it restores their faith in ALL humanity, not just one person. Which hopefully will encourage them to be nice in return.

I've got a really trivial one, a couple of years ago I had a spare ticket for Discover Dogs so I gave it to someone waiting in the queue to pay. Sunday, I'm queuing to pay for my ticket and someone comes up and gives me their spare! Kismet!

I ran across the road to a woman at a cash machine who had her skirt tucked into her knickers. Everybody else was walking by staring and I felt I had to do something. I couldn't leave her like that! She was ever so grateful and we had a good laugh about it. She did have nice pants on

Marzipanned it was. Nothing happened to the man, the police said he probably just wanted a chat and a cuddle with an attractive young girl! (WHAT) and he was quizzed about it but that was it.
I am glad in a way that it happened to me and not my friend or another babysitter, as I was a very aware young person, I can't help but think many kids wouldn't have known what to do and something much worse could have happened.
My friend's Mum (the one who had put me onto the babysitting 'job' , called him and expressed her disgust and that she had trusted him with her daughter and it was horrendous etc etc.. And he replied 'Well I never did anything to Samantha, it was only Sunflower I did that to!'

Polyethyl that's lovely. We never know how much our actions can mean to some people.

It wasn't directly involving me, but around the time of the famed London Riots, I was getting into Tottenham Court Road station, and overheard a girl saying to one of the policeman stationed outside there "thank you SO MUCH for looking after us the last few days". Had me in tears.

When we were in Japan, we were totally lost (no street names) and jetlagged, and a teenaged boy asked us if we were tourists, and then escorted us, walking us to our hotel (took around 20 minutes) and then just said "welcome to my country, welcome to Japan" and then walked away.

Thank you. My friend really is lovely. We volunteer for the same charity. Her job was a caring profession and when she retired they gave her an MBE. She is exceptionally nice.

Everytime I see on mumsnet someone talking about going "no contact" with some family member they can't get on with - I think of my friend's experience. That old man had children with whom they had gone no contact after too many family bust ups. (My friend did do a deed of variation to share the estate with them.)
No contract may end toxic arguments but it can also leave an old person lonely.

This thread is amazing but yours, Polyethyl, has finished me off .

Sunflower that's terrifying.

I can think of loads but the one that I appreciate the most:

Age 19, travelling in the US, my train had been delayed by about 5 hours so I got into Denver very late. There was a large family sitting in the seats behind me and they asked where I was staying and if I could get there safely.

When I told them I was planning to walk to my hostel they immediately bustled me into their car (despite having several little, sleepy kids) and drove me to where I was staying. Thank goodness they did as it was seriously dodge, heard several gun shots that night and by the cold light of day would NOT have wanted to be walking those streets alone!

Most people really are lovely.

It's good to see so many stories about nurses. We do really try (most of us anyway) to help. Today I left work even later than my already late finishing shift, as I ended up doing a couple of extra jobs, helping my rather stressed looking colleague from the next shift as the skill mix was crap and there wasn't really anyone free who was able to do the thing required to silence the annoying noisy machine for the patient's relatives.
I bought a hot chocolate for a homeless man on a snowy day last year. Other people made comments about he was probably just begging to get money for drugs. Even if he was, he had to be pretty desperate to be sitting outside in the snow at 6.30am, and he still needed a warm drink and biscuits. I needed to spend a note to get change for the bus fare anyway ( though I did end up spending more than that as coffee shops are so expensive so had to then spend more money on something else to get the right change). I don't think it was that kind though, surely just human nature in the freezing cold.
I have a colleague/ friend, who mentioned severe money problems in the run up to last Christmas. I bought small Christmas presents for her children and left them in her locker. I have also dropped a £5 note into her bag if I have had it spare when she has had her bag lying round in the staff room.

I would like to thank those who help with pushchairs on buses and with entertaining/ smiling at babies and toddlers when out and about. I try to repay this now DD is older. I would especially like to thank the man who found my dropped purse, phoned DH's number (which I have in there in case of medical emergency) and walked out of his way to get it back to us.

The most dramatic I know is a friend of mine. She had a regular running route which passed a well tended garden. Daily jogging passed she became nodding acquaintances with the old man that lived there. Which developed into a discussing the weather and the state of the garden acquaintance - when winter came she occasionally fetched his milk/bread etc. When the snows came she helped dig out his garden path. She never entered the house or progressed to the familiarity of using his first name. She just viewed it as a friendly place to pause on her daily run.
When he died she got a solicitor's letter - he'd left everything to her.

When my old banger of a car broke down on a busy slip road and every other arsehole behind me was too busy beeping their horns at me to move despite it being obvious that I'd broken down, a van with two work men pulled up alongside me. They pushed my car off the road onto the side, and then one of them lent me their phone to call for help (mine had died, typically).

Never seen them before or since but I've not forgotten it.

Wonderful stories, small acts of random kindness help the world go round. There is actually a book called 'Why kindness is good for you' can't remember the author(via Hay House, I think) which examines the physiological effects of kindness. An interesting read.

When our dear old dog had leukaemia last year he eventually became so weak we had to make the decision to have him PTS. He loved our vet and she came out to do the PTS at home, talked to him when she arrived, and he wagged his tail in his bed and afterwards she carried him out in a blanket talking to him kindly all the time, she and the nurse were both crying. They were so kind, and sent me a nice card too.

I suppose that giving an ancient poorly old dog a home in the first place ( and he was of one of the currently reviled breeds) was my kindest deed.

A couple of years ago I had my handbag stolen in Spain - I put it in the car then went to load the shopping in the boot and it was nicked. It had in it my passport, driving licence, all my cards etc.

An off duty Spanish policeman saw what happened. He told me the procedure for reporting the theft, then took me to the bank where the lovely staff gave me money from my account even though I had no formal ID (they did know me by sight). They let me use their phone to cancel my cards etc, then the policeman drove me home. Then other people helped me get my spare passport (don't ask - complicated) couriered to me.

The bag was never found but thanks to all those people a nightmare didn't turn into a disaster. Now I'm a lot more wary.

Kindness I will never forget, though it's 30yrs ago, is the kindness of the nurse who looked after my father in his final days at home when he was suffering from cancer. She made the whole awful experience bearable and my mum kept in touch with her for the rest of her life. Thank you Barbara.

I like being a bit of a secret kindness Ninja, but one of my favourites was standing up for a couple of Oz visitors, very young, who had booked some college accommodation as cheap holiday digs, without realising you don't get use of bedding, towels, cookware and so on. An incredibly patronising college employee was lecturing them on their stupidity, as if they would have had any idea about this. It was clear they were on a really tight budget and did not have any money to cover anything like that. I shut the old bag up, apologised on behalf of the British public for the shortcomings of the college, told them not to worry, popped home and made up a pack of necessities for them - bedding, duvet, pillows, towels, basic cookware and a few British delicacies. They were amazed, wrote in gratitude to me later on, and gifted me a set of eucalyptus covered coasters I still use to this day.

I lost the ability to walk or leave the house unaided, and friends I didn't even realise I had formed a kind of informal rota to make sure I got out the house in my wheelchair, got taken out to lunch, got taken shopping and so on, so I didn't go nuts. Remarkable. And it wasn't the people I would have expected, either.

I find this thread lovely. My experiences have led me to believe no one notices kindness and that people see it as a weakness. I however treat others as I'd like to be treated and try to find and do at least one act of kindness a week.. Recently I:

Found a wallet with 600 euros in it on uni campus and returned it to campus security. It belonged to a Greek student who claimed it and it had been his family savings to help him at uni.

Bought a fleece for a homeless person who was old and wet, begging in the rain.

Took a suicidal member of staff for a coffee and time out, letting them know I would support them all I could. Despite them previously taking out a fictitious grievance against me.

Stopped a student from jumping down a stair well from the 8th floor. Then waiting with her until help came, she was schizophrenic and had not been taking her medication.

I'd like to be bold and suggest everyone try to do one kind thing a week, even if it's just telling someone at work they look nice. It's amazing how these small things can really pick someone up and make a day, week, month etc. Costs nothing and feels great to make someone feel noticed and or cared about.

In a previous life I was working in a bookshop in Los Angeles. I had a lovely time chatting to an elderly woman who was looking for one of my favourite books (Brooklyn, Colm Toibin). Unfortunately we didn't have it in stock, so I made some recommendations for her and we had a lot of books in common.

She came back a half hour later, came up to me and said how she thought we had had such a nice chat, and that she wasn't sure if I'd be interested in this as a very strange question, but might I be interested in a ticket to the ballet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion? She had a season ticket and this wonderful Spanish ballet company were in town that weekend, but she was going to be away on holiday. She only had the one ticket as she went to the Dorothy Chandler regularly with her friends, and she was looking for someone to give the ticket to. She thought given our chat about books in common that I might appreciate the ballet. It was such a kind, lovely thing to do, I was floored! So sweet.

In all honesty the Dorothy Chandler was about an hour's drive from my house, so not exactly convenient, but was so shocked by how nice she was that I went along, no way I could pass it up! When I arrived at the theatre I sat next to her friends who were also lovely and said thanks for the book recommendation! The ballet was beautiful.

Long story but a genuine act of kindness I'll never forget!

When my granddaughter was stillborn a group of people from an internet forum secretly clubbed together and sent me flowers, chocolates and a tree to plant in the baby's memory. Along with a card (well, more of a folder really) of messages they had all written.

I had never met the great majority of them and will always be grateful for their support at a really dreadful time.