I was in line at Aldi and this girl with two toddlers in front of me had her card declined and she looked so fucking sad and said “let me call my husband real quick” and it was only 18 dollars, so I just paid for it, and she was very sweet and then as she walked off, the lady behind me said `”You know that was probably a scam, right?” and like, even if it was, like what a sad fucking scam, right? 18 dollars at the Aldi. If you’re “scamming” me for some Tyson chicken and apple juice and cauliflower, then just take my fucking money.
“A scam” people are fucking wild.
This happened to me, too. A woman had used WIC for the majority of her stuff (which I say from personal experience is such a long and embarrassing process) and to buy the remainder of her groceries, which included diapers and wipes, she used a card, and it got declined. I bought the other $30 of her groceries because hey, I’ve been there, and now I’m not. She was extremely emotional and began to cry and even hugged me. My mom called me on the drive home and could tell I had been crying myself, asked what was wrong, and when I told her what happened, she berated me for being “duped.” I couldn’t believe she could be so disappointed in one of her children for doing something- nice? Is that the hill you want to die on? Getting mad about people needing groceries?
I once paid for a woman’s bill at the vet…it wasn’t a big one, but she was trying to pay for some medication for her dog, and her card was declined. And her lip started trembling, and she says “I don’t get paid until Tuesday, would he be ok until then?”
So I just told them to add the $20 something onto my bill, and I thought she was going to break down crying right there.
And I don’t care if it was a scam or not. Just do nice things for people sometimes.
Do good recklessly.
I think “Do good recklessly” would be fantastic word art to hang on one’s wall. Artistic people, go!
*stomps in, here as a person on the other end of this*
Alright you fuckers. A couple months ago I was applying for foodstamps, received the card, and assumed it had money on it, dashed out to refill our cabinets, and got up to the self-checkout with $80 worth of groceries, and…..it wasn’t.
It felt so awful.
But then this awesome lady just! Randomly paid the cashier for all of it!!!! She didn’t even say anything to us, just went and paid the cashier, and the cashier told us!!!!! And just! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that lady, and wish I could have at least knit something for her.
But yeah, hella wasn’t a scam.
it turns out: people project a lot. it’s called “typical mind”, it’s the thing where you assume people are more like you than they really are, on average.
if you wouldn’t scam people, you usually won’t think of other people as scammers.
the people who think everyone is scamming are mostly the people who would be doing scams if they thought they would get away with it.
are there scammers? sure. are there enough of them to worry about? not really. just think about the cost to you of $20, and the benefit to a person who genuinely has no money to buy food with of getting food. if even half of the people you help out are for real, you’re so far ahead on the game.
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ForLoveFromFear 