Stories of Kindness from Around the World

A Twenty In His Hands


--by elaine, posted Aug 13, 2007
This past weekend my daughter and I were at a grocery store shopping for some goodies in preparation for visiting my mom and grandmother.

As we were standing at rack trying to decide what to get, I looked up an saw an elderly gentleman pick up a tomato  and weigh it. He then began counting coins in his hand to see if he had enough.

My daughter and I both looked at each other.  We understood and smiled.  She said, "How much?"  I said, "Um, about 20?"  She agreed, so I pulled out a $20 bill,  walked over put in the gentleman's hand and closed his fingers. 

He looked at me astonished and speechless, as his eyes began to water. 

I looked him and gently said, "Enjoy.  And have a pie on us."

We picked up our shopping goodies, left the store with big smiles, and felt blessed to have run into that old man.

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Readers Comments

Rajni wrote: Your timely kindness is greatly appreciated.
thaata wrote: You have really restored faith in humanity in that old man and. Keep it up, this world would be a little better coz of you.
Shelly wrote: Ok so i am weeping. How sweet you are. How inspiring that is. Thank you for posting!
smoothsugardoll wrote: As you have blessed, may you be richly blessed pressed down and running over. I hope God puts another jewel in your crown for that.
Amit wrote: Thank you so much for helping the old man. I know a 20 dollar bill doesn't mean a lot to many, but i know it meant the world to him. If we had many people like you, there wouldn't be so much suffering in the world today. Life would be so much better for all of us.
kevin wrote: i have done good and bad in my life and i am still only 17 most of the things i've done were carefree and thinking of only myself.
i opened this site off a google search read this as my first story and it touched me thank you im going to try to better myself.
Tammychi wrote: What a wonderfully inspiring and touching act.
Carol B wrote: $20 is alot when you don't have it. Years ago, single parenting a baby, broke, on the same day I decided I was going change my life, I found $20. It was like a sign that everything would be alright. And it was, it just kept getting better and better. That kindness you showed was worth a lot more than a paperbill. Price?
Priceless.
Birju wrote: AWESOME! heartwarming example of being the change. you didn't hand a man a piece of paper, you invited a man to connect. you told him he wasn't alone and there are people out there that love whether they know you personally or not. perfect =)
hi wrote: Heartwarming story.

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