Random Acts of Kindness and Humanity Stories, Part 1

Two stories came into my head that I felt were important to share and that always make me smile. This is the first.

The Wooden Bead

I was working the cash register at our bakery/deli and as was usual between noon and 1:30, we were very busy. I took the orders, passed them on to the line workers, rang up the customer and as fast as was possible, started on the next order. Stuff goes wrong constantly: customers asking where their order is, running out of napkins or coffee or forks, we need to pump more cheese through the automatic grater, yelling at the dishwasher to wash faster and refill the dressings at the same time. It always surprised me that we made it through the day without pissing off all our customers.

A tall man with dreadlocks made his order and paid with his card. I zoned out for a second as I was typing in the numbers and suddenly I realized I had entered his card number into the dollar amount spot, which would mean charging him over $60. I immediately hit cancel, but it was impossible to tell if the card had been charged already or not. There were five people in line behind him and I had no idea how to go back and cancel a previous charge, nor did I want to interrupt my boss with the 20 orders he had in front of him. I crossed my fingers, re-ran the card, and hoped for the best.

About a week later, the man with the dreadlocks came back. I noticed him speaking emphatically with my boss. The card mistake had slipped my mind and I figured he was trying to strike a deal with him or something, trade who knows what for a chance to advertise in our space or food, etc. About ten minutes later, my boss came back and announced there was a discrepancy in our credit machine records and there was a $69 charge unaccounted for, with no receipt to match it. I stepped forward immediately, explained what happened and asked if I could speak to the man with the dreadlocks to apologize. He had left but was planning on coming back in a short while.

When he did come back, I apologized profusely. When I told him I had entered his card number into the dollar amount number, his face changed. "Yeah, that is the number, 6925..." It was as if he hadn't really believed it was a mistake until that moment. I continued apologizing but his focus had shifted and he began to laugh as he walked out the door.

Several weeks later, the man with the dreadlocks came back. He asked for me, but I was unavailable. My co-worker went instead. She returned with a large wooden bead, about the size of a marble. There was a dragon fly burned on to it. The man with the dreadlocks had asked that she give the bead to me. It was beautiful and I was very touched. I took it home and found a leather thong to string it on and wore it as part of my costume for Ariel in The Tempest. I later found out that the man with the dreadlocks makes beads and other wooden decorations with burned designs for a living.

I never found out exactly why he gave me the bead. I believe in being honest with my customers, and while I try to focus on the positive for the sake business and making a profit, I will tell them when I have done something wrong without sugar coating it. It seemed that the bead was in thanks for my honesty, which was not something he was used to receiving from a business. But I also felt receiving the bead was a kind of message from the universe: Yes, your contribution is appreciated.