15+ People Who Found Hope When They Least Expected It

Luck often seems to be out of reach, only to show up when we least expect it. Some people discover money right at their feet, while others cross paths with a generous stranger who pays their bill at a restaurant. Life has a way of delivering surprises so extraordinary that they feel almost unreal.

• I was buying an expensive camera. I’m standing in the shop, about to pay, and suddenly I hear, “What are you buying here?” I turn round and see a girl in a fairy costume.
  I say, “I’m buying a camera.” She says, “How much is it? I’m a fairy.” I thought it was a joke, but I told her the price. And she nonchalantly says, “That’s great! Our shopping mall is giving you this camera!”
  She told the salesman to put the amount in the mall’s administration account. I thought it was a joke, but no. Indeed, he wrote something down, and gave me the receipt and the camera. I looked up and the “fairy” was gone. © Mark Shamer / Facebook
• We’ve all found forgotten money in our pockets in our winter clothes. Sometimes the find can be very gratifying, but today I realized that my forgetfulness has reached its limit. When I was sorting out old papers on the nightstand, I found $1,000. I thought I had spent it long ago. © Overheard / Ideer
• My car broke down on a two lane highway in the middle of the Appalachians, 20 miles from the closest city and with no cell reception. The first vehicle around the bend was my grandfather who lived three hours away. He had randomly decided to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. From break down to being picked up was less than five minutes. © joshebgaming / Reddit

• One time I went outside to bring the trashcans from the curb, back to the side of the house. I didn’t think much of it, until a car crashed into the telephone pole right next to where the trashcans were, as I was walking back into the house. © theStringArray / Reddit
• This happened to me a few years ago. My husband is in the navy, and due to deployment missed the birth of our son and would be missing his first Christmas. We had very little money, but I really wanted to decorate the house for Christmas a little and get a tiny tree, I maybe had $40 for both tree and decorations.
  So, I go to a certain home improvement chain store, and unfortunately they started selling their real trees Black Friday, and my husband would be gone by then. I found a worker, explained my situation, and asked if they could possibly sell me one earlier. The lady talks to her manager for a minute, then leads me outside to the locked tree area.
  I ask her which ones were the cheapest, then she told me her manager said to let me have any tree I wanted for free! Because of their kindness, I was able to give my husband an amazing first Christmas with our firstborn. And the look on his face when he walked in and saw everything decked out was absolutely priceless. I will never forget those kind people. © j_platypus / Reddit

• I worked at a shoe store. A mom was telling her son that she couldn’t afford his shoes tonight, but she would have us hold them in hopes she could scrape up the money and come back and pay for them.
  A woman overheard her, and when the mom left, the lady came up to me, “See those shoes on hold? I want to pay for them. Tell the lady when she comes back they’re already paid for.” I said, “Are you sure? They’re $70.”
  She said, “I don’t care how much they are, put them on my ticket.” And she left. The woman came to buy the shoes for her son the next day, and her face when she found out a stranger paid for them was priceless. © Currywursts / Reddit
• My husband went to lunch with his coworkers. There was a sign on the table in the restaurant that said, “Win a phone.” So, he filled out the form, even though everyone laughed at him.
  A couple of weeks later, my husband got a phone call saying he won an iPhone. He went to the shop and really got a brand-new phone. © Elena Chervyakova / ADME
• My husband left me for another woman, and I was left practically with nothing. The first month was especially hard. I picked up my daughter from daily care, and we were standing at the bus stop. A man in a long coat comes up and says, “Have a good evening!” — and immediately gets on the bus. I look, and he smiles through the window and points at something under my feet.
  I lower my gaze, and there is a small bouquet in a basket next to me. I thought the man had just forgotten it, but he smiled again and waved. The bus drove off. I picked up the basket and noticed an envelope in the flowers.
  I opened it and inside was a decent amount of money. When my daughter and I got home, I couldn’t understand who this stranger was and why he decided to leave this gift to us. I could understand the flowers, but why money?
  I admit that this money at that moment was very useful to us, but I didn’t dare to spend it for a week. I thought it was originally intended for someone else, but something went wrong.

• It was winter about 6 years ago. I was going to work. It’s 7 a.m. It’s dark and cold, and I’m terribly sleepy. I queued for the bus and finally sat down and settled down by the window, leaned down and decided to doze off. And then with the corner of my eye I see the hem of a long fur coat next to me and... I fall asleep.
  I open my eyes at my stop and see something shiny on the floor. I look closely — it’s a watch! The woman in the long coat is gone. No one’s there. End of the line. I took the watch with me, just in case. Every day I commute in this bus, and I looked for the coat I remembered in my half-sleep.
  And one day I saw something similar. Immediately I ran through the crowd shouting, “Miss, did you lose anything on the bus the other day?” And she said, “I did. I lost my wristwatch. It’s very precious to me.” If it wasn’t for her long coat, the owner wouldn’t have found her watch. © Romino4ka / Pikabu
• In college, I moved into a new student complex that had a few fancy contests where all you had to provide was your name and email address to enter. My sophomore year in college I ended one semester with 50 bucks left in my account. Less than a year after that I got a call from my apartment complex informing me I won $5,000.
  Hoping my luck didn’t peak in college. © Pjp288710 / Reddit
• One day, somewhere in the late 80s, I approached my classmates who were standing on the street in front of the school entrance. We’re standing and chatting. And suddenly I lower my gaze and see a folded banknote under our feet. I pick it up and say to the guys, “Who lost it?”
  No one confessed, because they thought I was making fun of them. I realized the money wasn’t theirs and put it in my pocket. That day I was as happy as an elephant, because such money was huge for me at that time. Many years have passed, but I still don’t understand what it was. © AlexS / ADME

• I was flying home for my mother’s brain surgery. She had a tumor that the doctors were going to try to remove but it was very complicated. I arrived at the terminal gate and the doors were shut...they informed me I’d just missed my direct flight and would have to spend the next 5 hours on another flight making all kinds of stops, missing my chance to be with my mom before surgery.
  So I’m sitting there fuming at myself with tears in my eyes, and see the lady at the gate answer the phone and chat with someone. Turned out the airplane had a burnt out light bulb and was going to return to the gate, and they’d let me on. It was so incredibly lucky. I got the stink eye from a lot of passengers like it was my fault but a few told me to a buy a lottery ticket. © treestar0 / Reddit
• I was a large outdoor concert and some dude walked up said, “no way it’s you, man.” He then hands me my driver’s license that I didn’t know I lost somehow. © Motownmods / Reddit
• I was going through a rough patch in my life. I’d even say complete apathy. Just work, home, child. Almost nothing interested me at that time.
  But I pulled myself together and started looking after myself again, set priorities, discarded everything unnecessary. But I had no idea that soon I would have to go to work abroad, my personal life would start to improve, and I would even have a friend. © Overheard / Ideer

• About a week ago in work, a lady came up with a child in a pram, and had about €28-30 of groceries. She put her card in the machine, and it was declined 3 times. She was flustered, but she said she definitely had money in the bank.
  It wasn’t busy, so there was no queue behind her. She asked if she could run to the ATM we had in the shop, I said “of course” and away she ran. She left the child in the pram beside me.
  A woman who was being served at another cash register suddenly came over to my checkout, and stuck her own card in the machine. She insisted I charge her card for the lady’s shopping, so I did. All she said was, “We’ve all been in that spot.”
  Just as the transaction finished, the woman who owned the shopping came jogging back, with €30 cash in her hand, and the woman who had paid just walked out the door without a word. When I told the woman that someone had paid for her, she was in shock. She just stood there in awe at a stranger’s kindness. © Minberg / Reddit
• In the 90s, I went with a friend to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet. There were a lot of people and no tickets available. Suddenly, a lady comes up to us and offers 2 tickets at cost price — someone didn’t show up. We take the money out in joy, but at that moment a reseller runs up and... snatches the tickets out of our hands!
  The tickets get torn in half. And then the lady just says that she doesn’t need the money, so we rushed to the control. We were lucky that a strip for control was on our parts of the tickets. © Nik Ka / Facebook
• The Valentine’s Day before my wedding. A local jewelry store had a giveaway for a pearl necklace. I won and was able to wear it to my wedding a couple of months later. © Unknown author / Reddit

Here are some amazing stories of people whose luck turned around in the most unexpected ways!