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I've got a weird one from a bank. I was driving from South Carolina to Virginia, I was completely broke, and had exactly $20 in cash, and only a couple dollars

I've got a weird one from a bank. I was driving from South Carolina to Virginia, I was completely broke, and had exactly $20 in cash, and only a couple dollars in my checking account. I did my math wrong, and didn't have enough money for enough gas to make it home. I was trying to draft behind semi trucks and drive slow to conserve fuel, but it wasn't enough. I called my bank at the gas station with my needle on empty and asked what would happen if I overdrew my account by $50, and the guy on the phone asked me to explain the situation. Afterwards he said I was good to go. I asked, what does that mean? He said there's now $50 in your account. You can use it to fill up your car on your debit card. I filled up my car and made it home. When I checked my account later, expecting to see an overdraft fee, there was a deposit of $50 from some account I didn't recognize. The guy had just transferred me $50 from his own account. I never figured out who this was, so ~18 years later, I'll take this opportunity to say: thank you sir. I don't know that this is THE nicest thing anyone has ever done, but it was a small thing that made a huge difference in that moment.

HexPhantom 11mo ago
Kindness doesn't have to be dramatic to be life-saving in the moment
- tjwebbnorfolk 11mo ago
  Indeed.
lukan 11mo ago
Ah yes, I kind of grew up with the expectations bank people are supposed to always rip you of, so they cannot really be kind, only pretend nice to get money from you. So when I was a poor backpacker in australia wanting to cash in the small check from fruit picking work, I was suprised to find out, that there were normaly quite some fees involved to get the cash, but the bank person just smiled and said, it is ok in my case and I got all the cash with no fees.
tjwebbnorfolk 11mo ago
It's really striking the number times people have downvoted my story, considering it is 1) a true fact about my life, and 2) eminently relevant to the topic of the article. Even a thread about kindness can't stop the haters :)
- CamperBob2 11mo ago
  Honestly, I suspect HN is starting to fuzz votes the way Reddit does. Some of the voting I've seen on my own comments lately makes zero sense, including weeks-old comments of perfectly neutral tone. It isn't worth worrying about.
  - defrost 11mo ago
    Don't discount better and better "I can't believe it's not human" aping behaviour of personal bot armies of HN accounts - there's clear and obvious spam green accounts, and a steady drip of bland comment, weird voting behaviour, biege textual tone accounts that evolve through green and into background noise. The admins potter about classifying coarse behaviour and looking to reject spam, voting blocs, overly weird AI comments, etc. The creators make their bot accounts less obvious with random votes, etc.
    - fsckboy 11mo ago
      what's green mean, new?
      - defrost 11mo ago
        Comments made by recent accounts appear with green names until a grace period passes. HN prefers "legit accounts" (subjective) - good faith comments from real people, reasonable uses of alias and spun up fresh accounts for regulars to say things without being part of their main history, etc. New commenters welcome. There are obvious and less obvious dark patterns of bad faith account creation. The admins do a pretty decent job, sweeping cobwebs without hitting real genuine people is an artform ... Returning to the main GP point - there's a lot of low key background churn activity that can result in "inexplicatable" votes, some from bots and some from the general case of "people are strange".
urbandw311er 11mo ago
Literally welling up at this. Thanks for sharing.
bgbntty2 11mo ago
About 10 years ago I was regularly withdrawing small sums of money every month, looking a bit poor, with old clothes, sometimes a bit torn or dirty. The bank teller just offered to give me a pair of winter shoes. I felt uncomfortable so I didn't take them, but thanked him anyway. I could've used them, but I think he probably offered them to someone else later on who needed them more than I did. I didn't have any prior relationship with him, except going to him to give him my ID so I can get the money a few times.
- sejje 10mo ago
  I worked at a YMCA as a young man, and I once bought a pair of shoes for a kid who was embarrassed of theirs. It didn't go as well as I thought it would--her mom was embarrassed and then out-did me--but it still felt really good to give them. So for anyone reading, it can feel as good to give a kindness as to receive one. Don't shy!
  - bgbntty2 10mo ago
    > it can feel as good to give a kindness as to receive one True - I love giving gifts and helping people more than receiving them or getting help. But it's still awkward/uncomfortable to receive help. > her mom was embarrassed and then out-did me Out-did you how? Did she buy better shoes for the kid? Or did she give you a gift?
    - sejje 10mo ago
      Yeah, she took the kid and let her pick out her favorite pair. I had picked for her, and I'm not a girl. I think the new ones had lights. I will say the kid cried happy tears and thanked me and beamed all day long the first day. She was 8.
  - DANmode 10mo ago
    You did great.
bigstrat2003 11mo ago
I have a similar story. I was probably 22 and my car was in the shop, which was across town. When I got the call that it was ready, it was only an hour before the shop closed but I figured I could walk the distance in that time. After a while it became clear I wasn't going to make it, even running (which I had been doing for a bit). Exhausted and with only 5 minutes before the shop closed, I asked a guy at a gas station if he could give me a ride. He said sure, got me to the shop no problem and even refused money I tried to give him for his time and gas. Looking back, it probably wasn't that big a deal for the guy. He only had to drive me a handful of blocks, so it's not like it was way out of his way or cost him more than a couple dollars in gas. But at the time, it felt like he saved my life. I was able to get my car back and get to work that night, and all was well. It's amazing how big of a difference a small kindness can make.
SoftTalker 11mo ago
I was at a gas station once and someone approached me with a sad story about needing to get somewhere (I don't recall the details) and he was broke, could I give him some money for gas. This is a common scam but he seemed genuine and I was in a good mood. I said I did not have any cash but I would buy him a tank of gas, which I did. Then I went back to fill my own car, and the pump never charged me. I swiped my card, filled the tank, but the charge never appeared on my credit card.
- kaikai 11mo ago
  I wonder if the second tank of gas at the same gas station triggered fraud detection, and your card company handled it without asking.
  - SoftTalker 11mo ago
    Possibly. It was quite a number of years ago.

HexPhantom 11mo ago

Kindness doesn't have to be dramatic to be life-saving in the moment

tjwebbnorfolk 11mo ago
Indeed.

lukan 11mo ago

Ah yes, I kind of grew up with the expectations bank people are supposed to always rip you of, so they cannot really be kind, only pretend nice to get money from you. So when I was a poor backpacker in australia wanting to cash in the small check from fruit picking work, I was suprised to find out, that there were normaly quite some fees involved to get the cash, but the bank person just smiled and said, it is ok in my case and I got all the cash with no fees.

tjwebbnorfolk 11mo ago

It's really striking the number times people have downvoted my story, considering it is 1) a true fact about my life, and 2) eminently relevant to the topic of the article. Even a thread about kindness can't stop the haters :)

CamperBob2 11mo ago
Honestly, I suspect HN is starting to fuzz votes the way Reddit does. Some of the voting I've seen on my own comments lately makes zero sense, including weeks-old comments of perfectly neutral tone. It isn't worth worrying about.
- defrost 11mo ago
  Don't discount better and better "I can't believe it's not human" aping behaviour of personal bot armies of HN accounts - there's clear and obvious spam green accounts, and a steady drip of bland comment, weird voting behaviour, biege textual tone accounts that evolve through green and into background noise. The admins potter about classifying coarse behaviour and looking to reject spam, voting blocs, overly weird AI comments, etc. The creators make their bot accounts less obvious with random votes, etc.
  - fsckboy 11mo ago
    what's green mean, new?
    - defrost 11mo ago
      Comments made by recent accounts appear with green names until a grace period passes. HN prefers "legit accounts" (subjective) - good faith comments from real people, reasonable uses of alias and spun up fresh accounts for regulars to say things without being part of their main history, etc. New commenters welcome. There are obvious and less obvious dark patterns of bad faith account creation. The admins do a pretty decent job, sweeping cobwebs without hitting real genuine people is an artform ... Returning to the main GP point - there's a lot of low key background churn activity that can result in "inexplicatable" votes, some from bots and some from the general case of "people are strange".

urbandw311er 11mo ago

Literally welling up at this. Thanks for sharing.

bgbntty2 11mo ago

About 10 years ago I was regularly withdrawing small sums of money every month, looking a bit poor, with old clothes, sometimes a bit torn or dirty. The bank teller just offered to give me a pair of winter shoes. I felt uncomfortable so I didn't take them, but thanked him anyway. I could've used them, but I think he probably offered them to someone else later on who needed them more than I did. I didn't have any prior relationship with him, except going to him to give him my ID so I can get the money a few times.

sejje 10mo ago
I worked at a YMCA as a young man, and I once bought a pair of shoes for a kid who was embarrassed of theirs. It didn't go as well as I thought it would--her mom was embarrassed and then out-did me--but it still felt really good to give them. So for anyone reading, it can feel as good to give a kindness as to receive one. Don't shy!
- bgbntty2 10mo ago
  > it can feel as good to give a kindness as to receive one True - I love giving gifts and helping people more than receiving them or getting help. But it's still awkward/uncomfortable to receive help. > her mom was embarrassed and then out-did me Out-did you how? Did she buy better shoes for the kid? Or did she give you a gift?
  - sejje 10mo ago
    Yeah, she took the kid and let her pick out her favorite pair. I had picked for her, and I'm not a girl. I think the new ones had lights. I will say the kid cried happy tears and thanked me and beamed all day long the first day. She was 8.
- DANmode 10mo ago
  You did great.

bigstrat2003 11mo ago

I have a similar story. I was probably 22 and my car was in the shop, which was across town. When I got the call that it was ready, it was only an hour before the shop closed but I figured I could walk the distance in that time. After a while it became clear I wasn't going to make it, even running (which I had been doing for a bit). Exhausted and with only 5 minutes before the shop closed, I asked a guy at a gas station if he could give me a ride. He said sure, got me to the shop no problem and even refused money I tried to give him for his time and gas. Looking back, it probably wasn't that big a deal for the guy. He only had to drive me a handful of blocks, so it's not like it was way out of his way or cost him more than a couple dollars in gas. But at the time, it felt like he saved my life. I was able to get my car back and get to work that night, and all was well. It's amazing how big of a difference a small kindness can make.

SoftTalker 11mo ago

I was at a gas station once and someone approached me with a sad story about needing to get somewhere (I don't recall the details) and he was broke, could I give him some money for gas. This is a common scam but he seemed genuine and I was in a good mood. I said I did not have any cash but I would buy him a tank of gas, which I did. Then I went back to fill my own car, and the pump never charged me. I swiped my card, filled the tank, but the charge never appeared on my credit card.

kaikai 11mo ago
I wonder if the second tank of gas at the same gas station triggered fraud detection, and your card company handled it without asking.
- SoftTalker 11mo ago
  Possibly. It was quite a number of years ago.