20+ Sincere Acts That Prove Kindness Is Still in Fashion

Sometimes life brings us such surprises that we want to believe that the world is not without good people. A child may surprise you with sympathy, a stranger may help you carry heavy bags, or someone just may smile at you at the right moment, lightening up the mood for the rest of the day. These small but important moments are a reminder that kindness is like a cup of coffee on a cold morning — it warms, invigorates and makes everything around you a little better.

• My younger brother is 4 years old and, of course, he is bored alone, so he always pesters me, and I have exams coming up, I have to study a lot, my nerves are on edge. All day I had to play with him, but my patience didn’t last long — I raised my voice, then snapped at him.
  In the evening I put him to bed, he hugged me with his little arms and whispered, “When I have a birthday, I’ll make a wish that you never scold me again.” And immediately he fell asleep. I sat next to him and cried. What an idiot I was for growling at him. © Caramel / VK
• It’s snowing. I return home, park the car by my house, and then bang — the car gets stuck right in the snowdrift. I take out a shovel, start digging out the wheels, and not far away there is a car with 2 guys sitting in it, talking. I got angry, I thought, “They could offer me their help. And they are just sitting there like spectators.”
  But the wind quickly made me cold, so I decided to go home, warm up and then come back. I drank some tea, came back in half an hour with new strength — and what do you think? The car had already been dug up! These very guys silently did the work and drove away. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My husband made a doghouse for a stray dog that lives near our house. It’s winter, and we can’t take it in, but now it’ll have a place to stay warm. He also put up a bird feeder in the yard to make it easier for birds to survive the cold weather. It’s times like this that I look at him and realize I made the right choice. His concern for the world around him makes me turn a blind eye to all his little imperfections. © Not everyone will understand / VK

• A former coworker is an older woman. At the same time, she is learning new gadgets and technologies. She often asks for help: to download something or to edit a spreadsheet. Sometimes it pisses me off, but I still help: it’s not difficult for me, and she is pleased.
  And then suddenly I get a notification: she just sent me money in gratitude. She said she wanted to invite me to a café, but the weather sucks. How nice! © Overheard / Ideer
• My 9-year-old daughter gave all her money that she had been saving to an old lady who was begging near the bakery. She said she felt sorry for her.
  A few days later, we went with her and her grandfather to the garage, and she found 20 times more than she had given. We bought her the sneakers she wanted, and she still had some change left. It happened in the late 90s. © Olga Akimova / Dzen
• I had a hardworking week and a lot of family problems on top of it. On Saturday, I met up with some friends. And since I recently stopped straightening my hair, I went with curls.
  So, the brother of one of my friends complimented my hair, saying I looked like a model. Ugh, that made my evening, it was just what I needed to hear after a bad week. © One_Tacky_B / Reddit

• One day a man came up to me, all covered in scrapes, with a bruise. He asked me to make a phone call. So, I let him talk on the speakerphone.
  A month later, I saw him again and didn’t recognize him — a very well-groomed and pleasant man. It turned out that he had been hit by a car then, was released from the hospital so that he could clean himself up and take his things. He recognized me and thanked me again. © Overheard / Ideer
• My friends got married, and soon they had a son. I moved to another city, but we communicated through social media. I look at their photos, and they already have 2 boys!
  Because of my work, I rarely visited their profile. A few years later, I saw that they already had 3 sons, and for some reason the third one was the same age as the eldest. When I came to visit them, I asked my friends how it happened.
  It turned out that it was a friend of their eldest son. He lived with his grandmother, there were no other relatives. The grandmother died, and they wanted to send the child to an orphanage. Their son asked his parents to take custody of the boy, and they agreed. I am truly proud of their kindness! © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My mother found a man’s wallet in the car park of a shopping mall. She decided not to give it to the administration of the shopping mall, but to wait for me to help her return it to the owner.
  I found the guy on social media using his driving license. The guy arrived in an expensive car, looked at the wallet, checked everything and handed me $100. I froze and gave out a timid, “Thank you.” I didn’t expect a reward. © Overheard / Ideer

• I was standing near the subway, waiting for a friend. I saw some girl jump out of the car and run toward a big wet dog. She took the dog aside and started frantically calling someone, and then stood with the dog in the rain with her friend until the happy owners arrived.
  Apparently, their dog had been lost. There are still good people among us. © Overheard / Ideer
• I leave the office and see guys with a full basket of food running out of the supermarket, followed by an old man who was chasing them. He didn’t catch them, stopped, out of breath, clutched his heart.
  In about 5 minutes, as if in a movie, a big muscled man arrives in a cool car, stops in front of the old man, pulls the basket and one kid (apparently, who was carrying it) out of the car. He hands it to the old man. The kid’s been dealt with. It’s good that there are caring people like this. © Overheard / Ideer
• I studied in the 10th grade and decided to earn some money for Christmas presents. I got a job of handing out leaflets on the street. The frost was terrible. I’m standing, handing out, I can’t feel my arms and legs anymore, but I can’t leave — I’m working.
  Suddenly a man comes up, takes a leaflet, and then suddenly asks, “Have you been here long?” I was confused, and he said, “Come on, you need to warm up.” He took me to the nearest coffee shop, bought a hot tea, told me to sit and warm up.
  He took my stack of leaflets and said, “I’ll hand them out myself,” and left. After a while, he came back empty-handed, saying he’d done everything. Just out of kindness. © Not everyone will understand / VK

• I got a great job. 6 months later, I won a trip to the city of my dreams for a fortnight. The company usually gave a 4 days’ holiday max, so I was very worried, because I might not get such a chance again.
  Meanwhile, it was a real crunch time at work, and there were so many tasks that I literally lived in the office, trying to manage everything. I totally forgot about the trip. Eventually, I was sacked for a minor oversight. I told my mom in tears, and she calmly replied, “Now you can go on a trip.”
  After returning home, I found a new job within a week with a higher salary and interesting tasks. And yesterday my father confessed that it was my mom who persuaded the bosses to sack me. Now I don’t know how to feel about it. Everything seems to have worked out well, but how could she do that behind my back? © Overheard / Ideer
• I was riding on a bus to school. A young man of about 23–25 years old, with a beard, wearing felt boots, carrying a big rucksack got in. I got the impression that he was hitchhiking. The bus starts, and the guy says to the driver, “Can I pay for the fare with a pen?” And he holds out this pen.
  The driver smiles and takes it. He could have refused, but he didn’t. It seems like a small thing, but it feels good. It’s great to realize that there are kind people in the world. © Overheard / Ideer
• My friend is a street musician. She plays the violin in the evenings and I stand next to her because she’s shy. One boy cycling past on his bicycle threw a dollar. Then he came back, stood with us, threw another dollar and left. And he did it every 15–20 minutes.
  Finally, we found out his name, he said he was leaving tomorrow and was happy to meet us. It was the first time in her “career” that money was thrown by someone between the ages of 6 and 18. © Overheard / Ideer

• I was travelling on the bus, trying hard not to cry. I had a fight with my husband in the morning, it was a terrible day at work, and there was a mess at home. I stared at my phone to distract myself.
  At the bus stop, an old lady comes in and goes straight to me. I was about to give up my seat when suddenly she said, “Stay where you are, girl. I’m not traveling far, but you’ve obviously had a hard day.” And then she went through her bag and gave me a candy.
• I’m now 32 years old, I’m getting my second degree, and I’m in my first year of one of the most difficult departments at my university. And what a joy it is to help first-year students to whom everything seems so complicated and incomprehensible! I share with them files to prepare for tests, give them tickets and help them with their assignments.
  It is so nice to hear their gratitude! I understand them, because I myself had a hard time in my first year 15 years ago... Senior students helped me too, they always supported me and gave me advice. We need to make this world a little kinder! © Mamdarinka / VK
• 4 years ago, I broke up with my girlfriend. I was very hurt and moved to another city. Once I saw a girl crying at the bus stop. Came up just to support her.
  We chatted a little, I called a taxi to take her home. The next day I saw her at the same bus stop.
  She immediately came up to me and said, “You didn’t give me your number, you’re very good. Thank you.” We went out for a couple of weeks and started dating. We’ve already been a year together, madly in love with her! © Chamber 6 / VK

• Once, a girl of about 9 years old came up to me outside a shop and asked me to buy her bread, offering to help carry my bags in return. I gave her the money. After a couple of minutes she came out with a bun and a milk carton and then ran round the corner.
  Out of curiosity, I followed her and there she was feeding a stray puppy. Looking at this, I walked back into the shop, bought a bag of dog food and gave it to her, asking her to come and feed it. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• When I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, I made friends with another kid in an airport, and he was playing with a couple glued together LEGO cars. That kid and I played for like an hour with those things and when it was time to go our separate ways and board the plane, the kid insisted I keep one of the cars. And while I insisted he should keep them, he said it was proof that we were friends.
  And to this day, roughly 20 years later, I still have that car packed up with my childhood mementos box. © ForearmDeep / Reddit

• I live in Turkey. A fellow countrywoman runs up to me in the street, “Can I use your phone to make a call?” I felt tense, but I gave it to her. Then I saw that the call was to another country, and all the money disappeared from my account.
  I said, “This was an expensive call. Was it something urgent?” And then she said, “I’ll pay, will $50 be enough?” I laughed and said, “Not that expensive.” As a result, I didn’t take the money, but I appreciated her impulse.
• I met this lovely woman on a video game, actually, surprisingly. I was the enemy and I let her live. She added me, and we’ve been friends ever since. She introduced me to all of her friends and I get along with them all so well.
  The other night, her friends were teasing me as to when I was going to ask her out. I didn’t realize they knew I had a huge crush on her. I then got to talk to her and asked her out for a whole day/date.
  I said I wanted to make her happy and give her an awesome day to remember and hopefully make more happy memories to come, and she said yes. I tried to hide my excitement, but as soon as I stopped talking to them that night, I was giggling like a little school girl.
  I’m taking her out next weekend and I have a whole day planned. Even if things don’t go further, I still got to do the unthinkable. I was 15 at the time we met, now I’m 20. Better late than never. © Efan_Mr_Robbo / Reddit
• I’ve developed a good relationship with a colleague who is old enough to be my grandmother. Despite her age, she’s a great techie, gives good advice and has a great sense of humor. I am annoyed by other colleagues who claim that I have an affair with one of her married sons, or say that I need her inheritance.
  In fact, I need only kindness and understanding, which is lacking in my family. And these people try to find evil motives in everything. © Work Stories / VK

And these kind stories can make you cry with delight.