15 Times People Realized Judging by Appearance Can Backfire

We often judge people or situations at first glance, but things aren’t always as they seem. When we take the time to see the bigger picture, we often realize we were wrong. Sometimes moments like these remind us that it’s better to look deeper and not judge a book by its cover.

• “There is a homeless guy in my city, and all he does is play a simple tune on a xylophone to busk for money. An interview from the newspaper revealed him to be a Math genius who simply decided life was too hard, so he became homeless.” Unknown author / Reddit

• “I am a project engineer, and every Friday an average-looking blue-collar Joe heavy machinery operator buys breakfast for everyone. When I try and give him money, he refuses to take it.
  The other day, one of the guys pulled me aside and told me about 15 years ago the guy inherited a ton of money (roughly $20 million dollars) from a relative. I had no idea. He keeps the job to stay active and for health insurance.” 123fakerusty / Reddit

• “Second year of uni, first semester. Short-ish dude with wild hair in my World History and Intro to Political Science who kept to himself had a soft voice, and was an avid gamer who knew a lot of weird but interesting facts. I always figured he was one of those guys who stays at home all day, slacks off on work, games late into the night, and is kind of socially inept.
  Five months later, the dude is my boyfriend, and he’s a regular laugh riot. He’s getting me into gaming and helping me become more independent and strong-willed. I love the guy to bits and would do pretty much anything for him.” Unknow author / Reddit

• “A few years back I worked at a call center and there was this older guy in his 50s named Terry. He was a bit slow and always needed help on his calls, even for pretty basic stuff. He also talked very, very loudly, and it was annoying to sit anywhere near him and try and take any calls. There was a general feeling around the call floor that he was kind of a nuisance, his sales were always low and no one wanted him on their team.
  After working there for a few years, someone who had worked there longer than me let me know that Terry used to be an engineer at Boeing until he had a stroke, and he just kept the job to stay active. I felt so bad for him after that.” tehgoatman / Reddit

• “I was working retail when my coworkers and I saw this big, black truck pull in front of the store. Out steps a big, burly biker-type — tattoos, leather, boots, etc. He looks like a dude that you wouldn’t want to cross.
  Before he shuts the door to his truck, he turns and lifts out the tiniest little fluffy dog, with a tiny little pink bow on her head. He proceeds to come in and shop, the whole time murmuring sweet little nothings to his tiny princess-dog.” craftycayuse / Reddit

• “I worked in a big grocery store between 16 and 17 which had a staff canteen. You’d see the same faces each day but didn’t know them as it was so large and split into different departments (I was deli counters).
  There’d be this blind guy who’d always eat alone, and no one would generally approach, as he was an otherwise a bit strange looking and would make a bit of a mess. I felt bad for him and figured he was doing a job in the back office or something.
  Anyway, lots of us got randomly selected for some nonsense corporate training in one of the back office suites one Saturday. Upon arrival, I saw the blind guy sitting in the corner and sat down in one of the available desks next to him. After showing us a video, the trainer asked the room some question along the lines of, ‘What do you think when you see the customer with a frustrated expression on their face?’ We were all in high school and not happy to feel like we were back there, so all sat and squirmed in silence.
  Then out of the corner of the room came this loud, confident, erudite answer in the best radio voice you’ve ever heard. It was the blind guy. It was his voice on the tannoy system, welcoming everyone to the store and telling them all about the offers available. I’d always assumed that was recorded by an actor at corporate and played in all the stores. No, it was him alone for our store, and that was his job.
  I was shocked. This guy was short, skinny, had a rounded back and quite a gnarled face, with his eyes glassed over. Yet he had a voice made for radio. I learned a very valuable lesson that day.” Anxious_Cloud_5883 / Reddit

• “My friend worked in a department store, in the clothing area. Early one morning a woman comes in, she looks unclean, wearing oversized clothes and no shoes. She was trained to lookout for people like that and approach them in order to prevent theft. That’s exactly what she does with a bit of attitude, thinking this woman is here for no good reason.
  Turns out the night before her house burned down and she lost everything. The Red Cross gave some money to buy clothes and shoes for her and her kids. My friend felt really bad (obviously) and worked with for over an hour finding the best deals. It turned into one of her biggest commissions.” saltyhumor / Reddit

• “My mother worked in a clothing factory sewing pockets on jackets. When somebody died, one of her co-workers, the person left gold and diamond jewelry in her will for another lady who did this for a living. The value was 100,000. How a factory worker owned this remained a mystery.” woodstock-hak / Reddit

• “When I first moved into my new neighborhood, the guy who lived next to me knocked on my door. He was about 6 feet, with bulging muscles and tattoos scaling every visible inch of his skin. I eyed his piercings and talked to him for a bit. After looking around my room, he caught sight of my piano.
  He sat down and gave one of the best performances of River Flows in You I have ever heard. I’m sure I had an equally amazing expression as he played it...” xKirbee / Reddit

• “There was a guy in my class who had long messy hair that was dyed a bunch of colors, and he had a messy beard. I thought he was a pothead who didn’t really care about school. Turns out his parents are neurologists, and he was one of the smartest kids in the class.” Unknown author / Reddit

• “When I was 14, my Dad took me to a pet shop to pick out a bunny. While walking back to the car with my new friend, a couple of tough biker dudes parked their bikes next to our car. When they saw me holding the bunny, one of them (a brawny bearded man covered in tattoos) squealed, ‘OHHHH! A BUNNY!’ and requested to pet it.
  Apparently, he owned several rabbits over the years, and he offered quite a bit of advice to me. He was a neat guy. From then on, I stopped judging people by their appearance.” cheechsfeist / Reddit

• “A friend of mine used to work at a higher-end clothing store and got some amount of commission. One day, a woman came in and started trying everything in the store. The salespeople had learned to ignore these people because they usually try everything on, look in the mirrors for a bit, and never actually buy anything.
  My friend, being the naive new hire, helped this woman for almost two hours while the other salespeople watched. The woman ended up buying a thousand dollars in clothes, and the other salespeople were suddenly trying to poach her commission.” RedSpikeyThing / Reddit

• “When I was 14-15, I worked on a potato farm. There was this really old man there, never clean-shaven, who drove a beat-up truck. The owner of the farm had a son my age and I asked him if he ever thought that dude would retire, I felt bad that he was so old and still working.
  Turns out he had bought stock in Disney before it blew up and was a multi-millionaire. Golden generation and their work ethic.” Unknown author / Reddit

• “At a lake, my husband and a few local fishermen, there is a gentleman who is quite accomplished at fishing in the lake and takes home the limit in rather large fish often. Most of the people fishing that particular lake are subsistence fishing, as in we fish to supplement our meals rather than just for trophies or fun. Quite a few of the fishermen there have trouble affording the bait, but do so because the power bait is the surest way to catch fish to eat.
  Turns out that the gentleman we saw there every day looked just like everyone else there trying to save money, but actually was a lottery winner of several million dollars. This happy fisher who would teach others how to catch the rainbow trout in the lake and clean them to eat them was so wealthy he could afford to have a private lake stocked with only trophies for his fishing, but he preferred to be just like everyone else.” Kibure / Reddit

• “I work in a bar that does karaoke once a week. There’s a girl who comes in every other week or so to sing. She’s a local musician and one of the best regular singers we have. She is stunning, like, movie star-level, beautiful. I shot my shot a while back and was (kindly) turned down.
  Tonight, she came in early, absolutely gushing about a guy she had a date with. She said they had met a couple of weeks ago and had been talking nonstop, and she could not wait for everyone to meet him. The guy shows up about 20 minutes later, and I was like, ‘Wait, THIS is the guy?’
  He’s a huge dude. It has to be 6’4” or 6’5″ and 260, but medium ugly at absolute best. He was in a T-shirt and shorts, beard was kind of messy. And I just kept thinking, “It’s got to just be the height, right?? Why are girls this freaking shallow??” Like, she could have anyone, and she’s giggling like a schoolgirl over this guy??
  And she wasn’t just lukewarm about it either, she was clearly INTO him. They were holding hands, she was kissing him in front of everyone, just clearly so completely about this guy. And I did notice that he really just let her do her thing. He watched with a proud look on his face while she sang and was really friendly with everyone while she bounced around talking to people. So he had that going for him. But I still didn’t get it.
  Then, his name got called for karaoke. And when this man opened his mouth to sing, he had honest to God one of the best singing voices I have ever heard in my entire life. The entire bar stopped talking and turned around with their mouths hanging open. Later on, they sang together and it was insane. It was so good, and they were so in sync with each other that all of a sudden, they were clearly so undeniably perfect for each other.
  Turns out he’s a local musician as well, and she went to hear his band recently at a bar where she performs regularly. The owner of the venue introduced them, saying they should work together sometime, and they were immediately crazy about each other." LetNo8463 / Reddit

We have another article with stories that break all possible stereotypes here.