I don’t even know what brought this up, but it’s something I was just thinking about. Has anyone else had an experience like this? (i.e., a ‘payback’ experience)
In 1989 I was driving down the tollway, going to work, and I realized I had -no- money with me. I stopped at a rest area and figured I’d just explain myself to someone there and ask for some change. The first guy I saw there was in an army uniform, and was talking on the phone to (what I could gather from his conversation) his girlfriend, whom he was going to go see. I explained my situation after he hung up, and he reached in his pocket and handed me a twenty. He then went on his way. The money went for tolls and lunch that day.
Four years later I was at the same rest-stop. I was approached by a group of young women who told me they were having car troubles and were trying to get some change to call for help. I remembered the kindness that had happened to me on that spot a few years earlier, reached into my pocket, and gave the girls a twenty. I dunno why, but simply paying back this act of kindness made me feel like a million bucks.