Generosity towards yourself, what have you experienced?

July 13, 2004 10:14 AM

Guy finds an iPod on the aeroplane and decided to track down the owner. What acts of human generosity towards yourself have you experienced?
posted by ralawrence to Human Relations (16 answers total)

Well, this is a story about an act of generosity that happened to one of my good friends.

Back when all I really did was drink (Longer than a year ago, thank you very much), I and my friend just got back from this party at his girlfriends house. We were driving drunk, and we knew it. I stopped at a jack in the box and we ate while driving home. My friend chucks the bag out of the car and onto the side of the road.

Next morning, I get a phone call. "Keyser?" "Yeah, whats up?" "Did you see my wallet last night?" "I'll check the car."

Turns out, my friend *threw* his wallet out the window, as he put it in the jack in the box bag. He got a call that day from an insurance agent taking the bus to work, as she found his wallet in front of a tri-met station. The money was missing, but I drove him to the insurance office and he got everything else back. Really cool insurance agent.


Another time I found a bookbag that someone wrote their home address in, and I drove about 20 miles to give it back. Her and I are friends to this day.
posted by Keyser Soze at 1:22 PM on July 13, 2004

I've seen people call to return an ATM card left in the machine, a university ID, and wallets. I don't think it's really that uncommon.
posted by callmejay at 2:03 PM on July 13, 2004

I guess my experience was funny because he threw the wallet in the bag, then threw the bag out the car.
posted by Keyser Soze at 2:13 PM on July 13, 2004

I found a credit card in a shopping center parking lot and I tracked down the owner and arranged to give it back to her. When I asked her to read me the card number over the phone for verification, she read me a completely different number, but I gave her a second chance. In hindsight, I should have had a pen and paper handy...
posted by emelenjr at 2:23 PM on July 13, 2004

I have put my wallet and cellphone on the roof of my car while strapping kids on the back seat and then driven off with them there, not once, but twice. Both times, I have got a call from my own cell phone from the person who found them, offering to bring them to my home. Sometimes, I don't completely despair for the human race. Sometimes.
posted by dg at 2:29 PM on July 13, 2004

you better come up with something to justify this thread before mister crotchety pants busybody gets it wiped out. say you're doing book research or something.
posted by badstone at 2:44 PM on July 13, 2004

I found a cool messenger bag dumped in an alleyway after derby. I washed it, intending to keep it, and I found direction's to the owner's girlfriend's house (in another state) and tracked him down. I think he had gotten so drunk he had forgotten it.

Once this girl in college taught me how to kiss. That was cool. Yes, I am a dork and always will be.
posted by mecran01 at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2004

February 14-20 is Random Acts of Kindness week.
posted by seanyboy at 4:31 PM on July 13, 2004

Whenever I've been homeless, random strangers gave me food all the time. One time some guy who had just gotten out of jail gave me $10 and told me to get drunk with it. Another time I must have looked particularly miserable and sleep deprived, since a woman in a Starbucks bought an expensive fancypants drink and told the barista to run across the street and give it to me.

I once collapsed getting off a Greyhound in Provo, Utah, and a young Mormon on his way to his mission bought me lunch.
posted by cmonkey at 5:34 PM on July 13, 2004

Not too many interesting one's committed on my behalf but one time right after I had cashed my paycheck, I heard a female freind of mine in the store breakroom bemoaning the fact that shee need $5 to buy gas to get her home. So as i walked in I placed a folded fiver in her hands and walked out.

"Wow," she said "It's like money from a fairy."

I yelled back, "Thanks a lot."
posted by jonmc at 5:34 PM on July 13, 2004

*admires jonmc's wand*
posted by dg at 6:21 PM on July 13, 2004

One time in a supermarket, I was staring at a box of Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookies, deciding whether or not to buy them, when a woman came up to me with a huge smile and handed me a coupon for a free box. I asked her twice if she was sure she didn't need it, and she said no.
posted by invisible ink at 7:18 PM on July 13, 2004

Many years ago, I walked into Marcello's on Castro & Market and the guy behind the counter somehow detected I hadn't eaten in close to a week and handed me a free slice of pizza. This is pretty cool because as it turns out I was too broke to afford it.

Yeah, the nicest random thing a person's done for me is worth about two bucks.
posted by majick at 7:36 PM on July 13, 2004

I was pretty broke once, and a crackhead gave me a quarter for no reason. She just walked up to me, pulled it out of her cup and handed to me without saying a word.
posted by lkc at 10:12 PM on July 13, 2004

Joe, a former neighbor who was a retired NJ cop, pulled my sister from our mobile home as it burned to the ground. He got to her before she was hurt and handed her off to another neighbor so he could help with the fire. My sister was home alone at the time. She has no memory of the event and thinks she escaped on her own. The other neighbor witnessed Joe going into the fire with just a garden hose to pull her out. Mom learned the truth when the other neighbor told her of Joe's actions. When Mom went to thank him, he brushed it off with "Just had a feeling..." and "Anyone would have done it."

Thanks, Joe.
posted by onhazier at 6:19 AM on July 14, 2004

I once had a homeless guy give me a cigarette. He had bummed change and smokes off me for months, sometimes we'd chew the fat if we were in the mood. One day he asked me for change and I said I was broke. I then asked if he had a smoke and he gave me a Vantage. Nice of him, even thogh he had lousy taste in butts.
posted by jonmc at 5:16 PM on July 15, 2004