Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I had made up my mind a long time ago that I would not give a homeless person money, because I could never be sure what that money would be used for.  I did not want it to support any unhealthy habits.  Instead, I decided, I would buy them a sandwich, a cold drink on a hot day, a cup of coffee, whatever I could manage.

I was out and about running errands recently and saw a homeless man, with his shopping cart full of his only possessions, asleep outside of a Starbucks.  My parking meter was about to expire, so I dropped another few coins in and went into the Starbucks.  I decided I would buy this man lunch.  I purchased a sandwich and soda.

Just as I was leaving the store two policemen were approaching the man.  Apparently the shop owners had complained of his vagrancy and the police were there to escort him away from the storefronts.  Just as they were about to wake him, I asked one of the officers if it was alright if I just gave the man something before he went.  I was not sure why I asked permission but the policeman said sure and so I just left the bag in the man's cart, got in my car and drove off.

As I was driving off I remember thinking, "I hope people saw that."  Then I had to seriously ask myself why I hoped people had seen me give the man a sandwich from Starbucks.  Was it because I wanted people to think, "She's such a nice person!"?  Is that why we do nice things?  So people will think we're so great?  The thought of possibly being a showoff offended me somewhat.  That's not why I did it.  So why DID I do it?  Why did I hope others had seen me do it?  I continued to wonder this all evening.

The next morning it came to me. I wanted people to have witnessed that small act of kindness not so that I would receive credit and praise but so that they might be inspired to do the same and in so doing that others still would witness their acts of kindness.  Thus the whole spirit of compassion and giving would be perpetuated.

I don't like to tell people a lot about me.  I also don't like people to know of the things that I do because I somehow feel that it puts me in an unattractive light, that it makes me look like a showoff.  We all know people who like to brag to anyone who'll listen about how wonderful they are and I would not want to be considered one of those types.  But I do think that people could stand to be more generous and compassionate and it occurred to me that if I don't share with them what it is that I do and believe in then they might not know to do the same.  So, my lesson was to share but to do so always with humility and most importantly, to lead by example.