What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done to you?

1. One time at the cancer clinic I didn't know I had to pay for parking and a nurse on her break paid my parking meter because she said that I didn't need any other hardships in my life
   — BallinBrown23


2. We were very poor when I was growing up and my mother would often ask acquaintances of hers to babysit me and my sister while she worked. We were always grateful to these people, even the not very nice ones, because the alternative was staying alone overnight (Mom worked the graveyard shift) in whatever hellhole we were currently crashing. Once, one of our volunteer babysitters took us to the mall and bought us each a new outfit. It was like she knew how badly we were bullied for alternating the same outfits every other day because it was all we had. She also took us for ice cream, then to the grocery store and filled our tiny motel kitchenette with food. I just remember hugging her and not wanting to let go. We never saw her again after that, but I'll never forget her kindness.
   — FitfulAgreeableness


3. Small acts of kindness go a long way. My girlfriend and I are young and don't have a lot of money to go out, but we try to work hard so that we can afford at least one 'date' every few weeks. We were having Sunday brunch at IHOP one day a few years ago, sharing a few things to make it a bit less expensive; towards the end of our meal the server walked up to us with an odd look on her face and said that someone who asked to remain anonymous had paid for our meal and taken care of the tip, and said to pass along the message on the receipt: "You two reminded me of myself and my late husband when we were young. Such a lovely young couple. Some day when you can, I hope you'll pay it forward." My girlfriend and I were blown away. I looked around the restaurant for someone watching so I'd know who to thank, but I couldnt see who it was, so I chuckled awkwardly and thanked the server. It was a relatively small act of kindness by an anonymous stranger, but her message has stuck with me and motivated me to work hard and get to a place in life that I can extend the same generosity to others in need.
   — Salamanderman91






4. I grew up in a less than great household. At 16 I was homeless and on the run from my parents. On of which had gotten restraining orders against all of her children for no apparent reason. The other had abandoned his kids in a house that was under construction with no utilities to go to the Ukraine and get a mail order bride. I moved in with a distant family friend. While on a walk to see my girlfriend my dad drove past pulled over to the side of the road and started chasing me down. He chased me through a few back yards. I knew he'd just keep chasing so after getting a yard ahead I hid under one of those large evergreen bushes. He walked right up to it, didn't notice me somehow. Like Fellowship of the Ring with the wraith kind of close. He ended up leaving and I fell asleep under the bush because I was scared he was just waiting back the way I came or on the street the houses were facing. I woke up the next morning to a nice elderly woman who had apparently heard everything. She make me coffee, took me out for breakfast, bought me some new cloths, and listened to my story. I begged her not to call DHS because all they do is take you home and find any reason they can to do nothing. She didn't, she took me to where I was staying and I never saw her again. I tried to go back to the house years later after I had my life sorted out. Wanted to take her out for a meal and reconnect, I got the sense her children/grandchildren never visited but the house was up for sale. I'm not superstitious or even religious but somewhere deep from within I knew she had passed. I just sat in my car and cried for what must have been an hour. Harder than when my grandparents passed or when I broke off an engagement and 5 year relationship I just couldn't stop. There was some stranger who without question or judgement was there for me at my lowest low and I will never be able to appropriately thank her.
   — Halfpasthammer


5. In my freshman year at college, I saw this girl drop her salad on the sidewalk. My campus has these meal plans where you can only get one lunch for free, so she would have had to pay out of pocket for another lunch. I stopped by her and offered to let her use my lunch money to get another salad; I didn't think it was a big deal, and I wasn't even planning on using mine that day. She and I went in to get her a new salad. While we were in line, we chatted and learned each other's names; I mentioned the dorm building that I lived in, and that I had a hard time integrating into college life and making new friends due to my extreme shyness. I even remember mentioning the floor that I lived on and how I didn't really fit in with the other girls on my floor. I had no idea that she would keep any of that in mind. Friday night a few weeks later, I was asleep in my dorm, and I remember hearing some thumping at my door, but I didn't think anything of it. When I woke up the next morning and went to the bathroom, on my way back in my room, I saw that the girl who I had talked to had decorated the outside of my door with balloons and wrapping paper. She also left me a note, saying that she got her friends from a club that she was a part of on campus to help her decorate my door in the middle of the night. All of that, just because I got her a salad and didn't have many friends on campus. She also invited me to a meeting at that club so that I could have a chance to meet some new friends. The kindness of that gesture pretty much had me near tears for most of that morning. She is still one of my best friends today. That was just such an outrageously kind and thoughtful gesture for her to make, as a complete stranger, to someone who really needed a pick-me-up. :)
   — Boulier


6. A few months ago my 7-year-old son and I were evacuating from Hurricane Irma. We were waiting in line to get gas, and the guy in front of us who was pumping gas asked if it was just me and my son. I said yes, and he paid for a full tank of gas for my car and gave me a McDonald’s gift card that he said he wouldn’t use. It really could not have come at a better time; I was down to my last $50 and was going to have to borrow money from family to get home once I got to Tennessee (where we were going). I started crying and thanking him, and he waved me off, and told me that we all had to look out for each other. I think about that all the time.
   — l1zbro






7. While my mom and I were both at work, my 5 year old brother was supposed to stay after school but instead was sent home on the bus. My mom was notified of the mistake and we were instantly terrified. My mom's house is in a good neighborhood but we were brand new to this neighborhood and this world is cruel so I immediately left work and raced home praying to finding him sitting on the porch. To my terror he was nowhere to be seen. I started crying instantly, screaming his name all over the neighborhood. I then started knocking at doors and sure enough, a sweet old Korean lady who couldn't speak English noticed my little brother standing outside with no cars in the driveway. She guided him next door to her house where she watched him while waiting for my mom to come home. We sent them a card, a cake, and delivered cookies every Christmas since.
   — molly_millions_


8. 1. A Dublin cabby invited my family to his house when one of us left a camera in his cab. We retrieved the camera and he gave us all tea and some time talking about our vacation to Ireland. 2. Anonymous co-workers gave my wife a ton of their saved-up sick time at work when she was on forced bed-rest while pregnant with our twins. Wow.
   — DoctorToonz


9. In the early 90's my husband and I were in our twenties. Both in college, two jobs each, loving parents of a toddler, and DEAD broke. I mean no change left in the couch cushions broke. One afternoon we just couldn't stay in the house worrying about money anymore so we went to the mall to look at stuff we couldn't afford. At one end of the mall was a merry-go-round that cost a dollar to ride. We studiously avoided it as we didn't have a dollar but we DID have a toddler. She of course immediately started screaming HORSEY when we walked in the door. (We didn't think she'd remember since we went in the mall at the opposite end) So we went down to let her watch at least. We're standing there, she's begging to ride the horsies, I'm literally crying because we do NOT have a dollar. An older man steps up and hands me a dollar and says "let the little girl ride her horsey". I'm 49 now. Financially stable. Said toddler is a grown woman. And yet I'm crying as I type this because I'm still so thankful to that man. I've done everything I can to pay forward what he did for us.
   — rebel1031






10. Someone once anonymously bought Christmas presents for myself, my ex-husband, and my three children; as well as buying enough food for Christmas dinner and decorations to go on a tree after we lost everything due to financial hardship from my becoming disabled from multiple sclerosis. It took me three years to recover from my worst attack before I could go back to work. That was in the mid-1990s. Ever since then, I have set aside a percentage of my annual salary to anonymously give people a lift up every year to pay it forward. Some of the things I have done is buy plane tickets home for military members during the holiday season, help stock food pantries, give anonymously on friends go fund me pages, and give to other assorted charities. I never give my name, I never let them know it was me, and I never talk about it. I just do it. It is the best way I can say “thank you” to the person who made Christmas for my family when I was disabled.
    — msginnyo


11. Dropped my wallet in a city 50 miles from me a stranger brought it to my door
    — Bobus2


12. The day my 21 year old best friend died I was driving in a busy downtown area when I got the call, I immedietely pulled in to the nearest parking lot(a funeral home oddly enough). After getting off the phone I called the friend I had been on my way to meet and told her, she immedietely left to come to me, but was on foot and about 15-20 minutes away. I was sitting on the ground next to my car sobbing, and a woman walking by came up and asked me if I was ok. I managed to blubber out enough for her to get the idea of what happened, and she proceeded to sit down on the dirty ground with me and hold me until my friend showed up, in the process missing the bus she had been heading towards. Shortly after the woman left to get another bus, but while my friend and I were still sitting there, both crying and waiting for my mom to show up (my friend had already called her and she worked nearby, my best friend had been like a second daughter to her since we were 11), a cop sitting at the red light noticed us. He proceeded to do a u-turn in to the parking lot and came over to us. Turns out he had heard about the death over the radio, and when he saw two girls our age crying, suspected it could be connected. He stayed with us and talked me through a very intense panic attack until my mom showed up, at which point he pulled her aside and gave her some details of the incident that he know I wouldn't have been able to handle at that time. I'm very grateful to all four of the people who were involved in this, but especially to the woman and the cop, who could have just continued about their day and not taken the time to stop and check on me.
    — aries0324






13. My fiance and I were at Dollywood this past summer, and we were sitting down for a rest since it was really hot. This man probably in his early 30s walked up to us smiling, and handed us fast passes that still had about 5 uses on them. He said "My wife and I are leaving and don't want these to go to waste. Y'all have fun!" It had gotten pretty crowded and it was so nice to be able to skip the long lines. That dude made our day!
    — Kitty_Britches


14. I was on the El train in Chicago, coming home from work one winter's day. I hated my job. My wife was pregnant and I was scared to death of fatherhood. I felt trapped in the city and knew I wouldn't be able to afford a good school for my child. I was depressed. A woman was sitting next to me and she struck up a conversation. She told me she had just moved to Chicago from Florida. I immediately went in to a tirade...Why? Our winter's are hell. Parking sucks. Local politics is totally corrupt! On and on and on I went about bashing the city which I hated living in. Then she said "But the sunsets are so pretty here!" and pointed out the train window. I looked at the beautiful sun setting off in the distance. Her comment rung in my ears for weeks afterwards. With that one sentence, she showed me that I had been focusing so much on the negative aspects of life, that I was totally missing the beauty around me. It eventually led to me overcoming my depression, finding a job I loved and finally being able to move out to the country, where I have been since.
    — Drumlin


15. When my motorcycle broke down in the middle of nowhere, I posted to a biker forum hoping for some suggestions on what to check. Turns out it wasn’t something that I could fix on the roadside. A guy offered to come from 1.5 hours away with a trailer to pick me up. He had a shop at his home and was a retired mechanic and liked to rebuild bikes. Once we got the bike to his place he quickly figured out the problem but it was too late get the parts needed. He offered me dinner and a place to sleep. (His wife ran a B&B in their home). The next day he let me use a vintage BMW bike he had to ride the hour into town to get the part. I took out $500 cash to give to him. I took the scenic route (at his suggestion) back to his home, an amazing ride on a very cool bike. He let me use his shop and tools and helped me when I got stuck to replace the part. I insisted on giving him the money but he flatly refused. So I left it in the room I slept in. With an open invitation to return anytime for a place to stay if I was passing through, I rode away. Needing gas I stopped the only gas station in town to refuel. As I’m getting ready to leave the guy rides up on the old Beemer and gives me the money back. Says something along the lines of its better to do things from the heart and not for the wallet.
    — Kerberos42