I have been a plasma donor for quite some time and this happens one chilly day in the fall. I have been going through a tough time emotionally and financially but I am scraping by. It has started to drizzle and I know I am low on gas, but I hope that I can at least make it to the plasma center, donate, get paid for that, and make it to the gas station just up the street.

Unfortunately, when I come out of the center, I can’t start the car due to a lack of gas. I don’t have a jacket in my car because of poor planning on my part, but I resign myself to getting the gas can out of the trunk and walking the block and a half or so to the gas station and back.

I am walking along the sidewalk rubbing my arms to try and stay warm when a car pulls up to me and the lady in the driver’s seat leans over and asks where I am heading.

Me: “I’m on my way to the gas station because my car is totally out of gas!”

I laugh at myself.

Lady: “Well, hop in and I’ll drive you over there. Just this one up the street, right?”

I’m just grateful to be getting out of the rain.

Me: “Yes, thank you so much!”

She drives me up to a gas pump as we chat. I explain that I’m hoping that I have money on my card from donating and she laughs and tells me that she understands being tight on money. I get out to pay with my donor card and find out that it’s declined and that the money hasn’t been deposited yet.

Lady: “That’s okay! I’ll just charge it for you; it’s only a couple of dollars. 

Me: “Oh, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate this!”

I get my gas can filled and we head back to my car. We chat more on the way over and she promises to wait to make sure my car starts. As I start to get out, she hands me $40 and I am shocked and humbly accept the money. I get out and put the gas in. I climb into the driver’s seat and cross my fingers, hoping the car will start. I turn the key and voila! The engine turns over and I pump my fists in the air! I run back over to the lady’s car.

Me: “It worked! Thank you so much for saving me from walking in the cold!”

Lady: “I’m so glad!”

She reaches out her hand, and I reach back thinking she just wants to shake my hand. Suddenly, I feel a paper being slipped into my hand. I open it up to find a $100 bill. I begin stammering about how I can’t possibly accept this much from her and she just smiles.

Lady: “It’s okay; I just had that in my wallet. You need it more than I do and I hope you find some way to pay it back to someone in need one day.”

She drove off and I numbly walked back to my car and closed the door. It was not long before the numbness wore off and I began crying. I was able to fill my car and buy food with the money she gave me. I firmly believe that the lady who helped me three years ago was sent by something — be it fate, God, or just sheer dumb luck — to help get me through a rough time in my life and remind me that there are still good people in the world.

This story is part of our feel-good roundup for August 2020!

Read the next feel-good story here!

Read the feel-good August 2020 roundup!

One of my first jobs is at a local bakery department inside a supermarket. After a couple of months, the manager is badly injured on the job in a way that winds up needing surgery and rehab, so she is out for a very long time.

None of the other women in the department want the extra responsibility, so I end up handling schedules, sales, orders, etc. It’s very stressful and it means I’m always on the 5:00 am shift doing extra work, and the assistant store manager makes a big deal of saying how much she appreciates it, and how much of a lifesaver I allegedly am, every day. 

After a few months of this, one of the other department heads pulls me aside and tells me that, per company policy, I am actually entitled to an extra dollar-fifty every hour I am performing the duties of a manager. Looking it up, I see he’s right. Like most young people making minimum wage, that extra buck-fifty means a lot to me, so I go to the assistant manager about it. 

Contrary to how she’s acted — as if I’m a hero — to date, suddenly she becomes cold and combative. First, she insists I’m wrong, even when I show her the employee handbook, and then tries to argue that I don’t qualify, which I very much do. Naively, I am shocked by her abrupt 180 from how supportive and appreciative she’s been.

Finally, she angrily says, “It’s not even a big deal! It’s just a dollar-fifty! That’s nothing!” 

“That’s an extra twelve dollars a day for me,” I reply, “and almost fifty dollars a week. Nearly two hundred dollars a month. That’s my heating and my telephone bill, easy.” 

She scoffs but relents, and she makes a big deal out of making me fill out paperwork requesting the extra money I am owed, acting as if I am being greedy and unreasonable the whole time. Thereafter, she was very chilly and snide to me. It really opened up my eyes to how too many managers regard their employees as valuable until they know their worth, though I have been fortunate in the years since to work with some great managers and senior staff elsewhere. 

When I left the company to move away a few years later, still “temporary acting management,” I learned that they were just planning to have one of my coworkers fill in as manager rather than hiring someone, so I made sure to tell her about the extra money. She was very surprised and said nobody had mentioned anything to her. Hopefully, she followed through. 

Let this be a lesson, folks; always stand firm and don’t let yourself be guilted out of what is rightfully yours. You deserve it.

I’m a cashier at a local grocery store. A customer walks up to me with just a few items.

Customer: *Counting money* “Shoot, I’m ten cents short.”

Someone just told me to keep the change less than two minutes ago, so I’m feeling generous.

Me: “No worries, sir; it’s taken care of.”

Customer: “Thank you so much! I won’t forget! I’ll pay you back, trust me. I’m not poor!”

I almost immediately forget about it after he leaves; after all, ten cents is no big deal. A few days later, I get the same customer at my register, but I don’t immediately recognise him. Then, just as he’s about to pay:

Customer: “Don’t forget to add an extra ten cents! I told you I’d come back!”

He happily paid the extra ten cents and I felt a little bit better about humanity.

This story is part of our feel-good roundup for August 2020!

Read the next feel-good story here!

Read the feel-good August 2020 roundup!

I’m picking up some assorted foods at the local big box grocery store on my way home from a meeting. I recall my wife has asked me to pick up a roll of “that sushi with the fake crab and the avocado,” i.e., a California roll.

As I pick up an avocado roll for myself along with her California roll, I notice a sign advertising sushi as 10% off. When I get to the checkout, I notice — on the screen, before I’ve paid — that the California roll has rung in as 10% off, but the avocado roll didn’t. When pointing this out to the cashier, she quite politely informs me:

Cashier: “I’m not sure why that happened, but I can get my supervisor to check into it.”

Me: “It’s forty-two cents on a $60 grocery bill. I think I’ll survive.”

She looks at me as if I have three heads.

Cashier: “I wish I had more customers like you. I once had a customer tie me up for half an hour over a nickel, and she ended up being wrong in the end.”

Minimum wage in Nova Scotia is $10.15 an hour, making my $0.42 worth a maximum of four minutes if you take income taxes into account. That woman’s nickel was worth about thirty seconds, not thirty minutes.

A fifteen-ish-year-old girl comes to the counter with a box of candy.

Me: “All right, that’s going to be $3.75.”

Girl: “All right.” 

She hands me a five-dollar bill, and I give her $1.25 for her change. She gives me a weird look and then walks away to her friend. They talk for a while, and then the girl comes back to the counter.

Girl: “Shouldn’t I have gotten $2.25 back?”

Me: “You got [candy], right?”

Girl: “Yeah.”

Me: “And you gave me a five, right?”

Me: “Yeah, the candy was $3.75, so I gave you the right amount of change.”

Girl: “No, you didn’t. It should have been $2.25.”

Me: “Ma’am, even the register says it is $1.25.”

Girl: “But why?”

Me: “The candy was $3.75, the quarter makes $4, and the dollar makes $5.”

Girl: “Oh.”

She walks away, acting like I’m still wrong and she doesn’t want to deal with it anymore.

Coworker: “Did that just happen?”