Most generous thing you've seen people do

Dyr · 09-08-2011 09:48AM

I heard bono paid taxes once

eirn · 09-08-2011 10:09AM

I moved to Cork to go to college. My mam and I went down to try and find me a place to live. I'd arranged a few viewings, but I'd no idea of the city layout.

We got a cab from the train station. We had a big chat with the driver, I had a list of a couple of places to see, the agent was late meeting us in the first place, it was lashing rain, the driver told us to wait where we were, turned off the meter, and continued our chat about hurling!

The place ended up being a bit of a dive, so he picked a place off the list for me that he said he would choose if it was for his own daughter.

That was the flat I ended up taking. As a nice bonus, it was a few minutes walk from college, and across the road from the bus stop I needed to get to work. And ended up best friends with one of my flatmates!

Sykk · 09-08-2011 10:14AM

Even though this happened years ago when I was about 8 I still remember it as vivid as what I had for dinner yesterday.

We went on a family holiday to Spain and they brought me along. For a reason unknown to me, they brought all the money for the holiday in cash and got a safe for my mums room so they could keep the cash there.

Long story short, about three/four days before we had to go home all of the money was robbed from the safe. It was probably a maid that worked for the apartments as the only way to open it was a key.

Management had none of it, basically told us tough luck. Anyway we had about 20 quid between 6 of us for three/four days and made it til the 2nd last day by eating sandwiches!

We ended up in the airport with nothing left. I remember being famished (I know people are a lot worse off, two days without food isn't that long, but still)

I walked into a shop in the airport after finding some Spanish currency on the ground (didn't know what it was worth) and asked the guy could I buy a sandwich with it. He looked at it, smiled and said no.

When I went to walk off he called me back, handed me a sandwich, bar of chocolate, looked around for a second and grabbed a can of coke then handed all of them to me. He could speak much English so he rubbed his belly and said "You hungry, no problem!"

I went back and shared the sandwich then we got home and ate the house out of it..

There is good in people. I'd love to know where that guy is, I'd buy him a pint

factnee · 09-08-2011 10:32AM

Cill Dara Abu wrote: »

Niall Quinn dividing the profits of his testimonial between Crumlin Childrens Hospital and some other hospital in Manchester, nobody would have batted an eyelid if he had kept it all for himself.

Hardly..

Mother Teresa Quinn wasn't entitled to a testimonial from any club as he had not spent 10 years anywhere. This was simply a PR exercise to make himself look good.

Steamer · 09-08-2011 10:47AM

Was out at Halloween last year and on the way to get a taxi home with the girls I suddenly (in my drunken state) realised that we were going home without any food i.e. Supermacs. So I told the girls, ye head off, I'll go back and get some grub and see ye back at the house.

So I went in (in fancy dress) ordered the grub. Just when I was going to pay for it I realised that I had no real cash on me at all and no bank card or anything. Was standing there trying to count my change knowing I wouldn't make the 15euro worth of food I had ordered when a lovely man just comes over and pays for it all. I was so grateful (because I was drinking and Supermacs means everything to me at that stage of the night). I asked him to give me his number or something so I could give it back to him or something and he just said to do someone else a favour some night. So nice.

LostGirly · 09-08-2011 10:54AM

A few years ago we were in Montauk in America for a holiday! We went to a Waterpark with a girl we knew but she had to go on up to New York afterwards but dropped us to a bus stop on the side of the motorway. There was to be a bus in the next hour. The bus never turned up.

There were four of us, Irish, white skinned, and soaked through after a shower of rain! We decided we had to thumb. A lot of mexicans, rednecks and scummers stopped and offered us lifts - but none of them were actually going our way and we wouldn't have gotten into the back of their vans anyway! We were getting pretty scared at this point and didn't even have a mobile between us.

After a few hours and a few very scary looking people pulling up to offer us lifts this old guy in a Merc pulled up. He gave out stink to us for hitching on the motorway (completely illegal). He said he had granddaughters our age and said he'd die if he thought they were doing something like that. He wasn't going to where we were going but said he would bring us to the next town where there was a proper bus station. We tried to refuse, we didn't want him going out of his way but he was having none of it.

We all pilled in (we just knew he was ok), the same day he was driving his wife's car, if he had been driving his own car he wouldn't have been able to fit us all as it was a sports car, it was the first time in 5 years he had taken his wife's car! He dropped us to the bus station and as I was getting out of the car he handed me $200 so that we could get something to eat and get the more expensive but faster bus back to Montauk! He refused to give me his address so that I could send him the money when we got home.

I regret to this day not finding out his name and address just so we could send him some token of thanks. I will never forget that man who we've all called our Guardian Angel since!

stinkle · 09-08-2011 11:29AM

Mam heard a lovely story on the radio a while back about how a syndicate from a local bus depot had won a big amount on the Lotto. One of the syndicate members had died suddenly about a year before that but they insisted on donating his "share" of the winnings to his family. Mam didn't know who they were referring to at the time, but it turns out the man in question was her best friend's brother, who had left a young family behind. Very touching stuff and nice to hear of a good news story being reported.

simonmln · 09-08-2011 11:52AM

I was having a pretty crap day until I came across this thread.

dashboard_hula · 09-08-2011 11:59AM

Last Christmas, my Mum was knackered from working (she runs her own business, the nature of it being that she's incredibly busy at Christmas and other holidays) and she absolutely hates housework, so as a treat to herself, she was going to get a cleaner in to do the house. She got an attack of the morals the day she was going to book the cleaner, and gave the money to her friend who was a sacristan at the local church and told her to do something decent with it. Fair few quid as well - I'm not sure if the cleaner was that good or the house was that messy!
An hour later, the sacristan drove out to the house with a receipt for 8 bags of coal which she'd bought with Mums money and had sent to 4 families in the town who had had really **** times that year.
It's a small thing, but I don't know a lot of people who would have thought of doing that instead of just not spending the money.

Mocha Joe · 09-08-2011 12:07PM

jester77 wrote: »

Not exactly a big one, but it made me smile inside. Last weekend I was sitting in a bistro round the corner from me. A homeless guy (not your typical alco/druggie head, just an oldish guy down on his luck) was walking by and asked the people eating outside if they had any spare change. One of the guys who was in the middle of his meal stood up and brought him inside. Asked him to pick anything from the menu and he paid for it. About 15 mins later an oldish woman was trying to parallel park her car outside, she was all over the place. Same guy gets up, offers to help her and parks the car. Very few people like him around these days.

Sounds like a show-off. That would make me cringe.

Alter-Ego · 09-08-2011 12:09PM

I was out one night and got jumped by two scumbags for no reason. One of them picked up a beer bottle, smashed it and started swinging at my face with the broken bottle. A taxi driver stopped for me and extracted me from the situation and even took some damage to his car.
If it wasn't for him, god knows what would have happened to me.

123balltv · 09-08-2011 12:27PM

I was on a bus last week a woman at the back of bus was coughing like mad she looked really embarrassed we've all had tiggle in our throats its
annoying so she was coughing for 10 mins straight her face red as a tomatoe a lovely old man got on with his shopping bags saw her got off his seat offered her a bottle of 7up and a mint sweet within a few seconds she stopped coughing she was so grateful

Mr. Manager · 09-08-2011 12:42PM

Well, this is one of the best threads in AH

Just sat into the office and it's cheered me right up!

Will throw in my own story so. When driving from Dublin-Monaco last year we were due to stop in Nice for a 50th birthday of my friends mother. Had the sat-nav going and when it said "reached destination" - we hadn't.

In a really dark quiet place in Nice that didn't look all that great we decided to park the car and walk around to see if we could find it. The roads around were very tight and not leaving much space for U-turns. Anyways, we stumble upon a pizza place with a bunch of youths outside and we decide to head in and ask for directions. None of us speak French.

The owner, who has best English comes out to draw us a map (which is extremely complicated looking). We take the map and begin our 10 minute walk to the hostel. After about 30 seconds of leaving the pizza place a tiny little Renault Clio comes barreling down after us.

The owner reckons that the directions are a bit difficult to understand so offers to take us to our destination. After a few seconds hesitation, 3 of us bundle into the car and he takes us in the total opposite directions of what his map said - starting to get a little freaked at this point I ask what's going on and he says "short cut".

Lo and behold we arrive at our destination, a fabulous hostel. The best I've stayed at! The pizza shop owner was a top notch guy! Couldn't thank him enough as we NEVER would have found the place. It was totally hidden off the road.

When back in Dublin, a young couple approached me outside the Fitzwilliam casino as I was getting into my car and asked me would I drop them and their friend to Sandymount as they had not got enough for a taxi, now before meeting the French man I might have said no but after that, I said of course!

Brought them to a house party of which they insisted I came in for a drink. Thanked them for the offer as they thanked me for the lift and we parted ways.

Never has the phrase "Do onto others as you would have them do onto you" rang clearer

Plazaman · 09-08-2011 12:44PM

Back in my student days I got work experience in Cork with 3 others in the class as part of the course. Took the train to Connolly that day and walked over to Heuston. Queueing for my train ticket I realised that like a dill I'd left my wallet on the other train. A fellow classmate behind me seen my panic and bought my ticket.

In a double whammy, we were to book B&B's on spec until we got a house together so with no mon I envisioned a bit of street sleeping (had reported loss to Station master in Heuston who after making fun of the culchie for a while said he'd look into it). I knew distant family friends in Cork but hadn't seen them for years. I chanced my arm and made a cold call to the house after which they put me up, subbed me money and liased with the Irish Rail who incidentally had found my wallet and put it on a train 2 days later.

Triple whammy, not one penny was missing from the wallet which was found by a passerby who handed it in.

The feeling of having no money or being stuck in a situation out of your control is horrible so if I can help someone out of a bind, I do. Karma and all that shít (it works I swear).

UglyBolloxFace · 09-08-2011 01:11PM

Ezridax wrote: »

In KFC with my little fella on his 10th birthday. Had done the cinema and present thing and were heading home after. Two youngs lads walk in and up to the counter. They put down €2 and ask for an ice cream. Get their ice cream then sit down and start to share. They were only 11 or 12.

Anyway my young lad gets up, takes out €20 of his birthday money and goes up to the till. Hands over money and gets his change then comes back and sits with us. 3 minutes later the girl behind the counter brings out a tray of food (the kids meals with the toys) and brings it to the two young lads. She talks to the young lads and then points to my fella.

The two young lads get up come over and thank my little fella for the food. When they left i asked him what he done (as if it wasn't already obvious). He told me he didn't like to see anyone not able to afford some food, and he had plenty so he wanted to share. I'm sure it made more sense in his head, but out of the mouth of babes.

Couldn't be prouder of him.:)

I'm not gonna lie - that brought a tear.

Your little fella has a good head on his shoulders. You should be proud of yourself.

Magic Beans · 09-08-2011 01:17PM

A few years ago things weren't going too well for me and I was out of work. A friend of mine got me a job in his place on contract for about two months. Doesn't seem like much here in black and white but it was a total livesaver.

Caveman1 · 09-08-2011 01:30PM

Tordelback wrote: »

Several decades ago, when I was still just about a teenager, I found myself in Bradford the weekend before Christmas, having travelled there from points north to catch a 'plane home. The journey had taken way longer than expected and cost way more, it was unbelievably bad weather and I was down to my last 10 pounds.

I had been counting on a train to the airport, but there wasn't one, so I wandered out into the city looking for a bus. Somebody pointed me to a bus, which ended up taking me to Leeds, not the airport. Another query and I was back in Bradford, it was very late, it was sleeting heavily, I was soaked through and very close to broke. I asked at a taxi rank, and they quoted me 30 quid (or something similarly daft) to the airport. I tried to find a tourist office, even a booth in the train station, but they were all closed.

In desperation I walked into a posh hotel, thinking they might know about airport connections. I asked at the desk, and either the girl didn't know, or she didn't like the look of the hairy yob dripping on the carpet.

As I turned to leave, an Irish voice said: "so what part of Dublin are you from?". It was one of those old uniformed doormen guys, who'd overheard my accent. I told him, and he said he was originally from Raheny. I told him my Dad was from Raheny, we talked a bit, and he asked me where I was trying to get to tonight. He confirmed that I was out of luck for buses, but said he'd check with the taxi companies to see if he could get a better price - and ushered me over to an armchair by a fire in the foyer to wait. A few moments later he was back, and told me that a guy the hotel used regularly would take me to the airport for 20 quid. I thanked him, but said I had less than half that. He said he'd try again, and went off. A pot of tea and some biscuits appeared while I waited, my clothes steaming in front of the fire. I said I couldn't afford them, the girl who brought them said not to worry, it was sorted.

I'd finished a miraculous cup and was finally getting warm and wondering what the hell I was going to do next, with my flight only two hours away by now, when the doorman reappeared to tell me there was a taxi for me. I told him there was no way I could afford it, and he said he'd sorted it. I was gobsmacked. I offered him the cash I had, he refused. I asked for his address so I could send him the money when I got home, he refused. He just said "we have to look after each other when we're away from home", and showed me to the cab door. A few hours later I was on my way home for Christmas, instead of sleeping in some wet Bradford doorway as I'd been imagining.

I've never forgotten the shock of that kindness, and ever since I've always made it a point to try to help tourists in trouble, which has meant me getting taken for a fool more than once, but I don't really care. Like the man says.

That sounds like a perfect ad for lyons teabags

Great story

kev9100 · 09-08-2011 01:35PM

Brillaint thread.:D

A couple of years ago I as in Beauvais Airport in France trying to get home. Stupidly, I didn't print out my ticket as I thought I would just pay five quid at the Ryanair desk and it would be fine. Unfortunately, the girl at the desk said that I had to pay by card and I didn't have one. My phone wasn't working either, my flight was leaving soon and I really did think I as going to be stranded. Thankfully, the guy behind me in the line offered me his phone to call home and get my dads card info.

If he hadn't been so generous I was going to be stuck in france, with no phone and barely any money! Thank God for the kindness of strangers:),

09-08-2011 01:36PM

Broke down in the mountains over here.. No phone or anything and I run out of petrol. This lad stops, speaks no English but understands my predicament and gives me his 2 litres of petrol and refuses any money for it.

I needed someone like him so badly and I got very very lucky.. Not a nice feeling being in the middle of nowhere with all your life possessions on the back of a bike. Can't leave it there and walk and can't push it either.

The legend.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1640/p1020033nd.jpg

toxicity234 · 09-08-2011 03:29PM

In 2004.I had taking 5 months out from work; I was travelling in Peru it was my first stop. So I arrive in Lima on a Saturday evening and jumped on a bus heading north. Woke up as the bus stop in a town at about 10 the next morning.
I can never remember the name of the town, but got off the bus, there was a market on in the town square, so I had a look around and thought I have something to eat, So I went looking for an ATM. I had dollars but not much, So I found an ATM in what look like a oldest building in the world.
Put in card and tried to get cash and the machine swallows my card. So there I was in the middle of Peru on a Sunday morning pressing every button on the ATM to try to get my only source of cash of the next 5 month our of some old machine. After a few mins one of the local spotted me and asks me something in Spanish. In My Pigeon Spanish I try to explain what had happened. After a few mins half of the town was around trying to help me and a few local who could speak English. I was getting more and more worried as the bus would be leaving soon,
After about half an hour the local kid came running up shouting something and behind him was a middle age well dressed Gent. The English speaking local then explain to me that is was ok this was the local bank manager and that he was going to open the bank to return my card.
5 mins later I was back on the bus. Card in pocket, There two things I will never forget,
1) the feeling of being scared when I realised the card was coming out of that machine.
2) And the feeling of Relieve then the bank manager handed me my card.
It on my list of place I want to go back to, Those People were so nice. I’ll never forget them. I was a bit nervous about travelling by myself before that and whenever some ask me about travelling by myself I always tell that story.

vangoz · 09-08-2011 03:39PM

I was particularly stressed one day in work and had lots of worries and burdens on my mind (money being one) - I went down to the ATM on lunch to take bill and rent money out.
I went inside the bank to print a statement and as walked back out I was confronted by a lad with a big grin and as I looked down €400 in his hand, he just handed it to me and walked off without uttering a word, I was still in shock and still trying to gather myself so never got the chance to offer him a % of the "loot". Feel really bad and embarrassed for not even getting the chance to say thanks

.

Vinta81 · 09-08-2011 03:49PM

First time in NYC for my 18th birthday and on our last day headed to JFK and for some reason no one could go inside the terminal without showing their passport so we open our bags to get them out and low and behold mine is not there!

I opened my suitcase outside the terminal and went through every item of clothing, every bag to no avail

One of the Delta air hostesses came out and brought us inside and let us use a room to search again for it and kept trying to calm us down.

Couldn't find it and all I had was my secondary school ID and she even tried liasing with people on the slight chance to see if I could travel with it, obviously couldn't. Ended up missing our flight and she happened to be finished whilst we were there and she rang her husband who was a NYC cop and he drove out and collected us from the airport and they took us back to their house in Queens and let us use their phone to ring my family back here to let them know what had happened and gave us some food and drinks and then rang my Uncle who lived down south and he re booked me back into my hotel in the city (had NO money left). They drove us out to the city and to the hotel and gave me some money to get food etc...and made sure we had settled in and gave us their number and address if we ran into trouble.

To this day I still e-mail them every now and again and met her the last time I flew back into JFK

I'll never, ever forget their kindness.

Neyite · 09-08-2011 04:22PM

On our second last night on holiday last year, my partner lost his wallet. We had pooled our money in the lost wallet, and any cards with cash still left on it also in there. We reckoned that it was about €400 and our credit cards. I had a little cash on another card, but it would leave us very tight.

We went back to the restaurant we had it last, then asked our hotel receptionist for help. She rang the taxi company, holiday rep, police and was so helpful, but no wallet. She kept on telling us that it was probably in the taxi and that the driver was probably on nights and would get the message when he went back on shift. We didnt really believe her because lost valuables in our previous experience rarely get handed in. So we wrote off the €400 and cancelled our cards, then decided to head to the beach as there was no point in it spoiling our last two days.

When we returned, she called us over and said "I have a surprise for you" and handed us the wallet, and everything intact in it. We also discovered there was about €700 in it.

We could not get over the honesty of all involved, we decided to tip the money we didnt think we had in the first place between her and the taxi driver.

Laika1986 · 09-08-2011 04:33PM

I missed a train from St. James street in Liverpool a couple of years back because it was cancelled. I explained to a member of staff that i needed that train in order to get a few more trains to reach a ferry.

The staff put me on a different train and paid for a taxi for me to Chester to meet my last train. Unfortunately I missed that train by a couple of minutes and missed my ferry.

Eventually I got to Holyhead and Liverpool Rail had already paid for me to be transferred onto an Iirish Ferries(I was with Stenaline)

I know this might not seem overly generous but i couldnt help but think if this happened to me in Ireland I would have been told "unlucky"

banshee_bones · 09-08-2011 04:37PM

I was visiting my friend in the UK for a few days when the volcano in iceland decided to erupt which skewed my plans for coming home. Ended up having to stay on a few extra days more than I had planned.

Flights just kept getting rescheduled and cancelled and in despair I had to book a train and a ferry home. I was living in Dublin at the time and the nearest ferry was to rosslare. I knew I was low on funds but I couldnt check my balance, didnt have internet banking so on a wing and a prayer I managed to get that much paid for thank god!

When I got on my train to cardiff from bristol I got talking to two gentlemen sitting nearest me, they too had been effected by all the travel chaos that ensued from the volcano and were also getting the ferry and they offered me a lift to Dublin from Rosslare since I was also headed that way. they dropped me at the red cow luas stop in dublin and I got a luas home.

Walking back to my apartment I stopped to check my balance and I had €0! So if it wasnt for those two lovely gentlemen I would have been stranded in Rosslare with no money to get home to Dublin.

Feeona · 09-08-2011 04:37PM

factnee wrote: »

Hardly..

Mother Teresa Quinn wasn't entitled to a testimonial from any club as he had not spent 10 years anywhere. This was simply a PR exercise to make himself look good.

Mocha Joe wrote: »

Sounds like a show-off. That would make me cringe.

I think you're looking for the 'stingiest things people do' thread

Knine · 09-08-2011 04:54PM

I ordered a Domino's pizza about a year go and when it arrived I handed over what I though was 20 euro to pay for it.

A minute later I got a knock at the door. It was the pizza delivery guy. By accident I had given him 40 euro.

I was astonished at his honesty.:)

Patri · 09-08-2011 05:46PM

Friend of mine did the leaving cert last year, he lives fairly close to me and we have a neighbour between us who is retired now but used to teach honors maths and English, so my friend was struggling with both and he asked my neighbour would he give him a hand. My neighbour started giving him grinds 3 times a week an hour each day for free. He used to call up to my friends house and give him the grinds in both English and maths. He even went as far as to complete every exam paper in maths and English from the past 10 years because he hasn't taught for 15 years and he'd forgotten most things. He never charged him anything, and he broke his leg during the year and got his son to drop him up to the house. I thought this was exceptionally decent, the guy retired early because he became sick of teaching, so generous.

bonerjams03 · 09-08-2011 06:35PM

Knine wrote: »

I ordered a Domino's pizza about a year go and when it arrived I handed over what I though was 20 euro to pay for it.

A minute later I got a knock at the door. It was the pizza delivery guy. By accident I had given him 40 euro.

I was astonished at his honesty.:)

I appreciate little things like that.

Not the most generous thing I've experienced, but working in a shop and always giving out change on a busy day, very rarely I'd make a mistake and hand out far too much change, or give the original note back. And I always really appreciate it when people just come out and say I've given them double
the amount of change they deserve, because it's not even my money, it's the company's. I would just possibly get in trouble for having 'lost' money from my till.

Solnskaya · 09-08-2011 07:21PM

missus and me were on Grafton street before Christmas back a few years ago with our daughter who was about 12 at the time. We were looking in the window of some posh jewellers, daughter was loudly admiring a small crystal cat which while it was nice, was also expensive. I quietly said to her that there was no way I could afford to get her that, maybe we should go look somwhere else. Guy in a suit was standing beside us looking at the window- he came over and asked could we just wait there a minute while he did somthing-I was puzzled, but we waited for a minute or two, out he came carrying the crystal cat, gave it to my daughter saying"merry christmas", walked off. I was somwhat stunned, but thought it was a very nice, generous thing to do.
Few days later we were at home watching TV, there's you man on the programme- he was Jonathan Philbin Bowman, and I was sorry to hear it when his life was cut short-the only time I met him, he did a nice thing for no reason at all except to do it. I hope he rests in peace.

Most generous thing you've seen people do

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