Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Pay-It-Forward Chain Reaction at a Restaurant


--by mbeal10, posted Feb 14, 2010

My four grown children were all home visiting this weekend so we decided to go out for brunch.  The centre of attention was my toddler granddaughter.  She had never had pancakes before so we were excited about her trying them.

We always try to make our family meals special so this time we decided to order every kind of pancake they had and asked that they be served on one big family-style platter!

We each took turns digging in and also feeding it to the baby, who loved them.  There was a lovely environment at the table and lots of smiles.  As I was looking around the table, enjoying this wonderful scene, a gentleman at a nearby table caught my eye. 

He was eating his breakfast alone quietly, in the corner.  He frequently looked over and smiled as my granddaughter continued to entertain us all.  Suddenly, I had a great idea.

I dug out a smile card from the reserve that I always carry with me and snuck up to the waitress.  I explained to her that I wanted to pay that man’s bill anonymously and that instead of the bill could she please give him the smile card.

Our leisurely breakfast was still going on after the gentleman had left.  The waitress came over and told us that he had passed the smile card on and paid for another table before he left.  How great!

Not only that though,  the waitress then came back later and told us that the second table had now paid for someone else and passed the smile card on too! 

I couldn’t believe it when the waitress came back and told us that the third table had done the same thing. 

What was really amazing though, was that by the time we left, half the room had ended up paying for a different table!  Isn’t that great?  

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Readers Comments

Yagami wrote: Noice!
Yoongi :) wrote: It is ze best!
Catherine wrote: This is wonderful!
a wrote: Thats very cool
lindariebel wrote: Wow, this is unforgettable! How lucky the waitress kept you up to date with the action.
Deepa Garg wrote: Its really feel great to do something for someone's smile :-)
Miriam wrote: I love it, its so sweet and it makes me think of pancakes!
SmileSharer wrote: What an incredible example of how kindness spreads. By trying to bring a smile to one man's face, you made dozens of peoples' days better.
shaestar_1 wrote: What an amazing example of the ripple effect that kindness creates >3
Grander wrote: I was the man there

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