These 74 Small Acts Of Kindness Are As Impactful As The Large Ones

"I have this little bracelet that my dad gave my mom when they first started dating. Since my dad died before I was born, I have always cherished this bracelet. Well, one day while working at a big financial institution this bracelet broke. I placed it into my desk drawer and forgot about it overnight. Turns out the janitors cleaned out all the drawers and accidentally threw my bracelet away. When I arrived the next day, I panicked and looked through all the trash cans I could find until it was determined it must be in the dumpsters out back. My boss and several coworkers rolled up their sleeves and climbed into the dumpster to find it, mind you they are all in suits and dress shoes. About an hour later they all championed into the building chanting ”we found it” covered in grime. I come from a rough background and I hadn’t ever felt this level of kindness before. This changed me, and ever since I try to always go out of my way for others (especially for the seemingly small things)."

"I was nine years old, waiting for the school bus in Wisconsin winter. I had a thin coat, and no hat or gloves. A woman driving past saw me and stopped, giving me a blanket from the back of her car. It was a long skinny one, so she wrapped it around my head and shoulders like a big scarf. I remember thanking her but being confused. I told her I didn't know how I would give it back when I was done borrowing it. She hugged me and said not to worry. I still have that blanket."

"Neighbors asked to borrow my truck. Told them I could not trust my truck because the tires were bad. The next day my neighbor called and said he was getting new tires for his suburban and I could have his old ones. Told me to just show up at this certain tire shop and they would put them on.

Get to a tire shop and they put on brand new Goodyear tires. I asked what happened to the old tires I was supposed to receive. The shop owner said the “old tires” was just a story to get me in the shop. Mr neighbor bought me a full set of new tires instead of the old tires he said I could have."

"I missed my train to go home for Christmas from uni due to a crash near the station. I was completely broke and knew I wouldn't be able to afford another ticket. Life just got on top of me knowing I'd have to spend Christmas alone in my terrible student house and not being about to see my grandad who was in rapidly declining health. I was bawling my eyes out on the platform when a janitor(?) appeared out of a hidden stock room under a stairwell and brought me some tissues.

He found out why I was so upset and said to leave it to me. Took me to the customer service desk and got them to reissue me a ticket for the next train home. I was so thankful I started bawling again and he went on his way. Then just before I was about to get my train he found me on the platform and gave me some snacks and a can of coke and it's just the nicest thing anyone ever done for it."

"After my Dad passed away my depression kicked into overdrive. I went to the Doctor and got a prescription for antidepressants. While I was picking up my prescription I started crying. When I apologized to the pharmacist for crying like a child the pharmacist said, " You don't have to apologize. You recognize you have a problem and you are trying to fix it. That is a brave thing." It changed my perspective on treating my mental illness."

"I recorded a homemade album with my garage band in high school and handed out a few CDs. A few weeks later my English teacher approached me with 5 pages of notes on what he liked and what I could improve on. He apparently got the CD from someone at the high school and listened to it all the way through (it was over an hour long). He didn't know I was the singer and guitar player until he asked the person who gave him the CD. He said that if I ever got a shot in a studio, I would create something amazing. Thank you to all the teachers out there who believe in their students. It makes all the difference to some of us."

"I had just ended a 3-year relationship in a city I knew nobody in, started a new job, and worked on my birthday. I had hit it off with the lady who trained me, and when the HR manager stopped by and wished me a happy birthday she seemed surprised I never mentioned it. I explained I was in a bad place mentally and just told her I didn't feel like celebrating. On her lunch break, she went out and got me a single fancy cupcake from the grocery store up the street. She barely knew me. I literally clutched that cupcake in the breakroom and sobbed.

Plot twist: her son ended up working with us a few months later. We dated got pregnant and I in return gave her a grandson."

"So once in high school, I ate at a Mexican restaurant and unknowingly threw away my car keys on my tray when I was done eating. I went and asked a worker if he had cleared them off the table and he said no, but that he had just taken the trash out to the dumpster. I remember going outside and calling my dad to ask if there was a spare and he told me no. So I went back inside feeling humiliated and about to ask if I could look through the dumpster only to see that this man had already dug through the dumpster on my behalf and ended up finding my keys for me. He just went above and beyond and to this day I am so grateful for his help."

countlessbass said:
"Riding my bike on a long trip through Canada. With about 50 miles to go, I had a major mechanical failure. Stuck on the side of the road in a foreign country within 5 minutes at least 10 cars had stopped to check on me. One guy loaded my bike in the back of his truck and drove me 30 miles to the border where I could catch a ferry back to the US. Amazing kindness and generosity toward a stranger. He just asked that I pay it forward and to date, I've helped 5 cyclists who were broken down in honor of that promise."

TannedCroissant replied:
"Canadians are so nice, they don’t want anything in return, just ’eh it forward’"

"Choking to death on a roadside and a nice guy stopped and did the Heimlich on me. Thanks, bro!

Leaving a park with my son. Put a hard candy in my mouth, and said something to my son, and candy slipped down my throat. Immediately knew I was f****d, couldn't get air. Threw the car in park, and left my son wondering wtf. Started flagging down people on street. The guy and his girl stopped. It started to go dark. Made a universal choking sign, guy understood. I could tell he wasn't sure what to do, so I guided his hands to the correct position. After 4 or so heaves the candy popped out. I gave him a big hug and we went our ways. Scariest moment of my life, not dying per se, but dying in front of my son."

"I told my coworker I just really missed home and most of all: a home-cooked meal. I was 19 and moved away from home for the first time to a big city for a job opportunity. I’d never been away from my Mom before or even been alone for longer than like two weeks. I could cook basically nothing and everything I did was just missing something, so mostly lived off takeout and microwave meals, which I was starting to get really, really sick of. I just wanted a nice meal made with love and fresh ingredients.

Anyway, I told my coworker that, and the next day she came in with five homemade meals in containers for me to eat for the next week. The day before she conjured up a conversation about allergies which I didn’t even think was anything more than a usual conversation, until the next day. It made me cry, and she didn’t understand why I was so overwhelmed and surprised because it was just something she did every day but for her own kids.

I don’t think I will ever forget it, it was truly just so so sweet, and the meals were so good, so comforting. Truly tasted like they were just made by the hands of a loving parent."

"I've always struggled with my appearance, but it peaked one day when I saw myself up close on video for the first time in about a year. I thought I looked awful, and I lost all self-confidence. (Extreme and a bit silly, I know.) I stopped putting any effort into my appearance for a while and went outdoors only in sweatpants and t-shirts. Then, one day, my best friend had her birthday party. I thought it'd be rude to her to show up looking like a slob, so for the first time in a while, I curled my hair, put on a dress, and did my make-up. As I was walking home I passed a couple and (presumably) their daughters, probably 4 and 6-7. As we passed each other I saw the younger girl staring at me, and then she exclaimed "wow, look! Wasn't she beautiful?" I walked around a corner and actually cried a little. Children are so brutally honest, and knowing that somebody's first reaction to me was "beautiful" was a type of encouragement I've never felt before. That comment still sticks with me and I think about it when I start doubting my appearance again."

"My gym teacher purchased me to lunch in 3rd grade after I dropped mine. I'm 34 years old and still remember this."

dnebesh said:
"The time my car broke down in the middle of the night and my phone died and I didn’t know what to do. A random stranger pulled over and told me “We all need a little help sometimes” and I’ll never forget her words as she helped me jumpstart my car."

LocallySourcedWeirdo replied:
"When I was 18, my car broke down late at night on a lonely highway in NorCal. I didn't have a cell phone at the time (was too broken). I knew there was a grocery store a few miles up the road, and a pay phone, so I started walking on the side of the road. A couple pulled over in their car and begged me to get in. I was in tears, and said, that I couldn't take a ride from strangers. The lady started crying, told me that I reminded her of her daughter, and showed me her nursing ID. They told me they couldn't just leave me on the road at night like that. So I accepted the ride. And was safe. Thank you, temporary surrogate parents. You might have saved my life."

"The day that my significant other passed away in ICU, I was sitting alone in the ICU waiting room at about 7:30 am after pulling an all-nighter out of worry. I'm sure I looked like a complete mess to the hospital staff and other visitors, my eyes puffy from crying and definitely looking a lot younger than 19 years old. A woman I had never met or seen before passed by the ICU waiting room while glancing in, before coming back a few minutes later with a coke and giving it to me. I'll never forget her handing me the coke while looking like she was going to cry, and just telling me that I looked like I needed a little kindness in my life. She left after that and I never saw her again, or even got her name, but I hope she's doing well wherever she is."

"So, there was this one time in the 1990s. I was helping my brother move from a teaching job after college. This was in the middle of nowhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He was driving his little pickup truck pulling a trailer and I was driving my junky little Ford station wagon, packed to the gills with his stuff. It was a Sunday. I'm driving along and my car just dies. No warning, nothing. I coast to a stop on the side of a rural highway and wait for my brother to realize I wasn't behind him anymore and turn around. After about 20 minutes, he finds me, the hood up and neither one of us knows very much about cars. Soon, though a man from the house we broke down in front of comes out, takes one look at the engine, and says, "Timing belt."

We inquire about getting the car towed 30 miles to the closest large town and realize that it was going to be an expensive repair, even if the engine was OK and not ruined. This man, though, takes on a look at the situation -- sees two broke kids in their early 20s just trying to get by in life and he says, "Well, it's Sunday. Nothing's gonna be open. I tell ya what. My next-door neighbor is a mechanic. Let's push the car down to my driveway and we'll see what we can do." So that is exactly what we do. His neighbor calls his buddy at the auto parts store (which is closed on a Sunday), who does a favor and gets the parts needed, drives them 30 miles out to the house, and well sits around telling stories while the car gets fixed. This man's son, a kid of about 9 or 10, is hanging around. He is extremely bored. There were no kids nearby his age, and he was craving any kind of interaction, even with two guys in their 20s. The kid goes "Want to see my treehouse?" and points to the woods out back. My brother and I look at each other, shrug, and say, "Sure."

We end up spending two hours with this kid, helping him build his treehouse. When we are done, we go back to the house and the car is all fixed. My brother and I have maybe $60 in cash on us (combined) and tried to pay the man who did the work but he refused. He said, "No, you boys were in need of help and I wanted to help. You don't need to pay me. Plus, you kept my son occupied for several hours, which I truly appreciate."
He then says, "I want you to do something for me, though. The next time you see someone in need of help and you have the means, I want you to repay this favor." And that is one of the rules of life I live by, taught to me by a generous man in the middle of nowhere who helped me out when I was in a time of need."

"Newbie in the restaurant business and the owner walked over to me while I was making a sandwich. Very politely says to me" when I wrote that in the menu I envisioned this", and showed me how to make it the right way. What a nice way to say, you are not doing this right, do it this way."

"At work, I was complaining about heartburn once. I was still pretty new to the job. Didn't really have any work friends. Felt like an outsider. My life outside of work was pretty bad as well.

The bartender on shift overheard me and ran to a nearby coffee shop to get me chocolate milk. It definitely made the heartburn go away but it was such a needlessly kind act. I don't think ill ever forget it. 2 years later we're still friends and she is definitely one of the kindest people I've ever met."

"I was a week in New York. Middle-aged tourist from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I like to travel the subway all the way till the end, just to get to know the city. One day, I apparently ended up in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. While walking there, a woman bumped into me and started yelling at me in Spanish. Of course, I yelled back in Dutch. This caught her to her surprise and we both started laughing. I noticed she did some grocery shopping and had some vegetables I had never seen before. So, I asked her about them (in English) and before I knew it, I was invited for dinner. I accepted and insisted I buy the wine and beer. I had a great evening and met a large Spanish family. Best evening in New York. Even better than the 4th of July evening or the Yankees/Mets baseball game."

"I took my sister whose in a wheelchair to the cinema for the first time on my own. In the end, I realized I couldn't undo the brakes and was blocking everyone. I felt like crying because I thought everyone was pissed at me, but some nice lady helped me, then took me and my sister out. She said she once had a son who needed a wheelchair. This was long ago but I'll never forget."