A Literal Pay it Forward Gesture

by Leslie Arthur
(Canada)

Random acts of kindness can even surprise the person paying it forward, as in this inspirational story...

Tonight I decided to stop at the supermarket on the way home from work and quickly pick up a couple of items. My list was short... green tea, organic milk and chocolate... all for the health benefits obviously :). I realized how late I'd stayed at the office when I just made it through the store entry before a young staff member closed the doors behind me.

It was only a few moments and I had my little handful of goodies and was standing in the check out line.

There were two young women in front of me... early 20 somethings. Straight black hair was their fashion of choice and both wore a bit of costume jewelery, modest makeup and a few extra pounds around the edges. They were casually dressed in singlets and short trousers, and reminded me of young girls from telephone call centers, on their day off. They were obviously friends, and each had their separate basket of groceries.

Lots of times at the end of a long day at the office I'd be feeling a bit impatient to just get home. I might be trying to hurry them up, or looking for another cashier that had a shorter line or a line that was moving faster. But this evening I was quite content to just go with the flow and watch the world unfold around me.

The first girl had about a dozen items and they were beep, beep, beeping their way through the cashiers hands and into the young woman's grocery bags. With a total of about $35, the girl pulled out her bank card and swiped it through the card reader. Meeeeeeeeeep. It was rejected. "Oh, ha, wrong card" the girl said with a bit of a laugh. She pulled out another card and put that through the card reader. A few seconds lull and then meeeeeeeeep. It was rejected too! "Oh, that's alright" she said, "I'll just take the chicken, I have to have something to eat for dinner", and she laughed a little embarrassed laugh.

"That's fine" said the young blond cashier, who undoubtedly sees this happen on a somewhat regular basis. She capably picked up both grocery bags and placed them behind the counter. She dug to the bottom of one and pulled out the chicken. Beep. "That will be $6.59, thanks" she said. The young girl passed her card through the card reader yet again.

I think that all three of the other women held their breaths along with me for just a moment as we hoped for this girls sake that the card would be accepted. Meeeeeeeeeeep. Nope! Life was not holding it's breath... it was just telling it like it is.

Almost before I heard myself speak I spit out the words "I'll get that for you". I hadn't even been consciously debating the idea. The words just sprung out of my mouth, and I was pleasantly surprised! A friend had been talking to me about random acts of kindness last week, so the idea had obviously been churning around in the back of my mind these past few days.

All three young women simultaneously looked straight at me with big round eyes. They all had a similar look of surprise and disbelief on their faces. The poor victim of empty bank accounts exclaimed in amazement "Oh no, you can't do that".

"But really, I'd love to" I quickly responded. I explained that just a matter of months ago I'd had a similar experience of my cards not being accepted for payment. And I told them that had prompted one of my new years resolutions... 'to manage my money better'. I reassured her, saying "Really, I'd be delighted to do this for you."

With this extra explanation and assurance from me, she accepted my gesture with many sincere 'thank you's'. Both her friend and the cashier were also touched by my token act of kindness. They smiled at me and said how nice it was to see that happen.

Well did I feel great! It was so easy to touch three people with a gesture of kindness, and give them each a wonderful story to share with others. It was the best $6.59 that I had spent in quite some time!

I can't remember ever paying it forward in this sort of way before. But I can confidently tell you that now I'll be looking for opportunities to practice random acts of kindness on a regular basis.