to think a random act of kindness would have been nice in this situation...

[formerbabe]

Been wanting to post this for ages!

It actually happened years ago but I'd love to hear other people's thoughts...

So I was at home making spaghetti Bolognese when I realised I had no tinned tomatoes.

My 2 dc were quite small...toddler and pre school age. I got them in car and we popped to the supermarket. I picked up a single can of value chopped tomatoes and took it to the till. I can't remember the exact price but it was in the region of 30-35p. I didn't have any other items. When it came to paying I realised I'd left my purse at home. I explained to the cashier and had to go home, get purse and go back. Quite a palava when you have 2 young DC with you but oh well, totally my fault.

Anyway, behind me at the till was a man who watched this all unfold. He didn't say anything. Now of course, he had no obligation to help and I had no entitlement to be helped. But if I was shopping and saw a woman in front of me with two young DC buying a single can of value chopped tomatoes and had left her purse at home then I'd offer to get them for her? Fwiw, the guy was buying fairly expensive, naice items like organic veg, posh chocs etc

Would you offer to pay for someone in that situation? I totally would.

My mum gave a fiver to an old lady in a shoe shop once as she started to cry when the shop assistant told her the price and she didn't have enough money. Mum was always helping people like..... she once came home from the laundrette with another old lady as she found her in the street lost as she'd been to visit a friend then the trains had stopped so we all piled into the car and drove this lady home a good 45 minutes away. Mum only came home to get dad and I as she would have got lost on her own!
I always help people when I can because I remember how happy and grateful these ladies were when my mum helped them and it's nice to help people.
I would have happily paid for your tin of tomatoes if I'd been there and hope you would pay it toward and be nice to someone else when needed

*pay it forward I meant

This is a very interesting thread.

30p for tomatoes? Sure, I would pay. But some of the other stories on here sound like people have been chancing their luck and it has worked - you generally know if you don't have enough money on your card for a shop, especially if its a 20£+ shop. I have been lied to before by strangers, where I've given them money and realised afterwards it was definitely a bullshit sob story. Having said that, once my ticket at a carpark didn't work and I thought it must be that my card was broken (as it had enough money but wasn't working) and a lovely young man insisted on helping. Amusingly his card was also declined because it was the ticket at fault, but it meant a lot to me that he had tried. I don't understand the PP who said she had 0 money and DC had been living on beans and potatoes, but she then tried to do a 70£ waitrose shop??

I absolutely would, without a second thought. I've done this kind of thing lots of times.

I gave a woman 1p just last week because she was short. OK, it was only 1p and I hate having a purse full of coppers anyway, but yes, I’d be offering to pay for a tin of tomatoes in your situation as well.

I would offer to pay if I had the money. I have done so a couple of times in similar situations.

It's 35p and unless you genuinely can't afford that then I think it is a bit mean not to offer.