Here’s an important reminder to be kind to those around you: A server who saw a poor college student struggling at the bank decided to help her out and got a huge surprise in return: The exact amount he’d given her on a tip several days later.
Deric Wortham, who posted a picture of the receipt on which he received the giant tip to Facebook, wants the world to know that karma (at least in the form we think about it in popular culture) is real and that good people are rewarded for the things that they do to help others. While some might claim that the tip he received was just randomly generous — or the result of really good work because he seems like a stand-up guy — Wortham thinks it has something to do with the fact that he helped out a poor college student at the bank.
In his post, Wortham writes that he was standing in line waiting to cash a check when he noticed the woman in front of him trying to deposit a jar of coins that was filled up only a third of the way. Thinking that she might be unclear on the concept of how coin jars work, Wortham told the woman that she should wait until the entire thing was filled instead of depositing the $5 it looked like the jar currently held. Her response? A heartbreaking confession that she just didn’t have any money in her account and needed to put in whatever she had. That’s when Wortham decided that he needed to “pay it forward.”
Wortham says that when he got to the front of the line, he asked that $50 be taken out of his account and given to the young woman in need. Did he know her? Nope. But he did know something about being a broke college student 30 years earlier and he wanted to give someone the help that he so sorely needed when he was in the same situation (even though he’s got bills to pay just like the rest of us). Nice, right? Even the teller thought so. And it could have ended there. But it didn’t.
At the end of Wortham’s work week, his last table tipped him $50 on a $50 bill, giving him exactly the amount of money he’d donated to the college student earlier in the week. Was it the same woman coming back to return what was his? Nope. It was someone completely different. Some might call it kismet or coincidence (sometimes people really just like to tip well), but Wortham is calling it karma and telling everyone on social media that it pays to be kind to others in need. It’s not guaranteed (in fact, it’s unlikely) that this kindness will be paid back in full, but giving to others (and helping those in need) may just be enough of a reward on its own.
(Via Foodbeast)
