To ask for random acts of kindness that you've carried out...

[IchWill]

I believe that kindness breeds kindness. I often carry out random acts of kindness, because:

1. If I'm able to, why wouldn't I?
2. The world would be a nicer place if we all helped others out more often.
3. It makes me feel good to make a positive impact on someone's life.

Most I go about and do quietly, genuinely not helping people for recognition or glory, but when I have shared one or two examples with friends, they've said I've inspired them.

Let's hear your random acts of kindness...

@Novasglow But of course.

@IchWill Woo!

Last Friday my company paid staff late so wages landed at 2pm instead of early hours as normal. Cue lots and lots of phonecalls.
One of my team members is not in a good financial situation and lives payday to payday. He phoned to check when money would be in as he has his teenage kids every weekend and needed to buy food.
I said 2pm which wasn’t very helpful for him as he starts work at 12pm. He doesn’t drive and would normally take the train to nearest town to do food shop as little village shop is very expensive. He had planned to go that morning.

When he got in I gave him £20 and said he could leave half an hour early to catch the fish and chip van and treat his kids

Today he waved £20 note under my nose but I told him to put it away and glad kids enjoyed a treat.

He’s a genuinely good bloke and works hard to support his kids. Helped me out numerous times covering last minute shifts and it’s the least I can do.

I did also get him some nice aftershave the other week as he helped us cover the rota so much! I did put that through petty cash though

@squirrelnut That's lovely. Hope payroll goes to plan next month!!!

Love this thread!

I should add the payroll error was the bank’s fault apparently

Also I know it's a tiny thing but I always round up a purchase to the nearest £1 to give the remaining amount to charity when ordering dominos etc

I happened to be in a pet shop at the same time as a homeless man who was paying a bit toward a new lead and collar for his dog - the shop were letting him buy it in installments. I paid the rest.

I'm lucky enough to own a small convertible sports car, and I was folding the roof away one day (it's motorised - you just sit in the driver's seat and press a button) as a man and his small son came past. His son was absolutely riveted, so I let him sit in the car and raise and lower the roof a few times.

We were camping, and a young man on his own pitched a small tent near us. I got talking to him and found out he was in the army and was on a break from his current deployment in Afghanistan. He mentioned he was going to a nearby pub for dinner, so I gave him some money and told him to have it on us as a thankyou. He came and found me the next day and told me all about the meal he'd enjoyed, including starter, dessert and coffee - and a few pints, of course :)

I used to work in a local shop. We had an elderly customer who would come in with someone else (a relative I presumed) who would carry the shopping. One time she came in alone when the shop was quiet, she'd done her shopping and paid and was getting ready to leave. I asked the woman to wait at the door and I'd be back in a moment, found my manager and asked if I could take my break (had just started work and hour before) so I could carry the woman's shopping home - I knew she lived quite a way from the shop and up a couple steep hills as I'd seen them walking with shopping a few times - manager said it wasn't a problem (and also wasn't my break, it was 'customer service at its best' in her words).

Half way back to her house my friend drove passed us, turned around and stopped at the side of the road and offered us a lift the rest of the way. She was clearly getting really tired but tried to refuse the offer but we wouldn't take no for an answer, I assured her that this man was one of my most trusted friends and we helped her into the car and she directed my friend to her house. She tried to give us some money when we left her but neither of us could take it. Friend then gave me a lift back to the shop and I made him a brew to say thank you.

A few weeks later, another woman came into the shop and asked for me. She was the elderly woman's daughter and wanted to say thank you to me for helping her mum that day when her brother couldn't make it and to say thanks to my friend for helping too and she me a box of chocolates to share with my friend. I didn't need thanking or chocolates, I just need to know that lovely woman would get home safely.

A couple of hrs ago I was working in central London and had a GREAT day and a massive bonus. I went to the cash point at marylebone station and there was someone crumpled in a heap outside. I clocked them on the way in so I went to give them a tenner.

A tear stained girl of about 20 looked up at me and said, "Oh, I'm not a tramp, I've just had a shit day."

She explained she worked in a bar and lived above it and a condition of this was that she wasn't allowed to have a relationship with anyone she worked with. Her boss had found out she was seeing someone from work, she'd been fired, lost her home and dumped and she couldn't reach any of her friends (who she was going to crash with). She was freezing so I took her back to the pub and introduced her to all my work friends and she bought us all shots.

It makes me smile to remember this...

Found a £20 note in the middle of nowhere. No chance of finding whoever dropped it. Have spent it on Christmas treats for local food bank. Biscuits, mince pies, tubes of Smarties etc..
Does that count?

Yes! Definitely counts!

Me and DH knew all the homeless people around work and knew all their names. One Easter he bought them all an Easter Egg each. They were over the moon.

Not my act, but a heartwarming one I was told about years back.

It was on my 20th birthday and I went for a mooch down Oxford Street. It was a sunny and very hot day.

I just got out of Charing Cross station and saw a bloke sat in a doorway begging. I said I didn't have any cash on me, but would come back when I did.

I got some money out and bought him a cold water, then went back to find him. He was surprised I'd come back and asked me to sit down and join him, as he liked to chat with folk.

So I sat with him and asked him how he got to be in his predicament. He said he was from Scotland and when he was 17, his mum met a bloke. He clashed with the bloke and after lots of rows, his mum kicked him out, so he fled to London. But money ran out too fast and he found himself on the streets before he could secure any work. He was now 19 and sadly looked way older due to exposure to the outdoors.

He said he met lovely people all the time and that a group of 18 year olds from out of town had befriended him previously and once a month, they would come to London on a night out, find him, invite them back to their Travelodge, let him get a bath, shaved and gave him nice clothes and took him out clubbing, all paid for by them.

They apparently did this as he was a nice lad and they didn't want him to miss out on "being a teenager". I cried hearing this.

That was 22 years ago. I still of the lad and hope he got off the streets.

Lovely thread

You're all a lovely bunch aren't you?

Ichwill your last post is heartwarming

I used to give blood which is a sort of an act of random kindness but as I'm no longer allowed to so, I do this instead... thelittleyellowduckproject.org
I also make other items for various projects.

I was walking home from my friends when I was about 17 and I noticed an elderly man looking rather distressed patting his pockets. I walked past but then turned back as something about the situation didn't sit right. I thought it was weird that he was wearing a full suit when it was a really hot day.

It was very evident when I started talking to him that he had Alzheimer's or dementia and was extremely distressed. He kept saying he couldn't find his bus ticket and he needed to get home to his wife. I asked him if he wanted to have a little sit on the wall of the house we were standing outside of and as soon as he sat down and his attention was diverted he calmed down a lot. I rang the police and for the next half hour-ish he told me all about his life, focusing a lot on his primary school days. He was so lovely. The lady who's wall we were sitting on even brought us out a glass of water each.

When the police came it transpired he had wandered out of the old people's home he lived in and had managed to get half way across the city with nothing but a comb and an old lottery ticket!

I always think about that man x

It's a tiny thing but I always tip pizza and take-away delivery people. I don't think everyone does, and it's quite shocking. They earn absolute PEANUTS. There's often people begging outside my local Tesco's and I'm good for a toastie and a hot chocolate when I see them. I don't really celebrate Christmas but each year I find some charities eg for care leavers and buy stuff off their wishlist. I've just donated some money to Women's Aid - I read about people's awful experiences on here, and giving money to WA is my way of helping them.

Bumped into a lady who walks her dog in the same park as me on the train tonight. It turns out she is 7 months pregnant (hadn't realised). Carried her large parcel home for her from the train station - a baby mattress of all things.

I wouldn't think twice about doing something for someone if it cost me nothing - and sometimes feel like going out if my way especially if I'm in a good mood. I gave a young chap a pound at a train station car park pay meter- he looked a bit like he was out for the first time since passing his test and was so flummoxed by the machine I felt for him - he may have been a scoundrel but I imagined my nephew who's about to start driving and just thought, why not? Maybe he'll remember that and do something nice for someone else today.

I was once standing in a taxi queue in the pouring rain, with an umbrella, and was asked for directions by 2 very wet, rather drunk scantily clad teenage girls. As I answered them my taxi pulled in, so I gave them my umbrella. I just couldn't bear to see them getting wetter and my night was over, but they were gobsmacked!

I saw an old lady walking up a steep hill in rubbish weather the other week, she was holding on to a wall to keep her balance so I pulled over & gave her a lift, it was only a little way up the road but this lady was in her 80's & had gotten the bus across town to go shopping for her friend. I was glad to help especially since I lost my Nan and can't do those things for her anymore.

Quietly told a newish mum in Aldi that her skirt had got caught up in her baby sling at the back.

She was flashing her bum all round Aldi and nobody had told her. Every time we ran into each other in the aisles she would blush And thank me profusely. Poor woman. Been there. Done that.

I have a school gate mum a gap of mt dd's old clothes. There was some quality kit in there like Jojo and Frugi and i had been going to sell it but she needed it because no.3 was a surprise and she'd got rid of all her older dd's things.

I work next to a hospital.
Once I had some guy asking for money because he needed food as he was diabetic. I offered to pay him breakfast in the hospital cafe but he kept fiding excuses and refused.

Another time, I had popped to the cafe just for some coffee and another guy asked for some change for food.
I made him the same offer for lunch and he took it. It didn't cost me that much as, because of work, I get a discount there, and he got much more food than he would for a similar amount. I have to say that the staff there were also incredibly helpful to him advising him of all he could have for the set menu.

Disclaimer: I can be a bitch to pushover entitled and rude people, so it evens out.