A neighbor of mine, a single mom with two small kids, told me about a remarkable experience she had this week.
She’d gone shopping with her two little toddlers in tow and had set her purse atop her car while she buckled them in their car seats and loaded the groceries into her car. She’d spent her last dollar on the food and was anxious about how she’d find money for gas to get to work the rest of the week.
She was almost home, she said, when she reached for her purse to grab a tissue and realized what she had done. She broke into tears right then and there in despair. She retraced her route, scanning the roadside in the vain hope that she’d spot the missing purse. Then she drove to the local police station to report her loss.
To her astonishment, the police had her purse! It was beat up, as if it had been run over. They said some dirty, tattooed biker had brought it in just minutes ago. He told them if the owner happened to report it, to ask her to call him. He had left his phone number.
Puzzled, she called him while the police listened in, afraid he might have extortion of some kind in mind.
He said he was just returning from a 200-mile charity run and had spotted the purse by the side of the road. He told her that he looked through it for ID but only saw the photos of two babies in the empty wallet.
He thought the woman who owned it must be having an awful day. He said he was sorry she had lost whatever else was in the purse, but he had brought it in just as he found it. Except for one thing.
My friend said, “One thing? What was that?”
“Look in the zippered pocket,” he said. She did as he asked and discovered a crisp $100 bill.
“I hope that helps a little,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that good things happen in life as well as the setbacks.”
The police officers on duty were as shocked as my friend. “Just goes to show you,” one of them said, “You really can’t judge a book by its cover.”
That was two years ago, my friend said. And she never forgot the biker’s amazing kindness—or the lesson about judging people on the basis of stereotypes.
You never know how much impact a kindness that you do will have on other lives. Each gesture of kindness ripples on and on.
I know the grungy biker’s act of generosity meant everything to my friend. And I hope by telling you about it, you’ll benefit from his kindness, too.
Pass it on.
Warmly,
Susan
Image by Susi Schneider from Pixabay