I think that most people who help out strangers don’t ever tell other people about it.

They do nice things not for recognition, but so they can help out people who are in need or who are down on their luck.

We should all try it sometime! It feels great to help another person out, whether you know them or not.

Let’s take a look at a collection of wholesome stories from AskReddit users who helped out complete strangers.

1. Down with bullies!

“Found a kid crying in a locked bathroom, lights turned off.

Turned out he was being bullied, so I bought him a candy bar.”

2. A good deed!

“I live in Australia and it was the middle of summer about 109 degrees in the shade.

When I was leaving a shop I noticed an 80 year old man running for the bus but it didnt see him.

He was swearing and very angry. I stopped and asked where he was heading.

He was going in the oposite direction than me but I gave him a lift home and even a cold beer as I had just bought a 6 pack.”

3. Made him feel good.

“Was at a bar with some of my girls. There was this guy there who seemed so out of place. He was with friends, but he was giving of the most socially awkward “what am I doing here?” vibe.

After seeing him get ragged by his friends after being shot down by three separate females, I went over to him in front of his friends, pulled him gently by the tie and said “let me buy you a drink”.

I ended up speaking to him for about 30 more minutes while his friends cackled amongst themselves like hens.”

4. Have some roses.

“I made a bouquet of (about fifteen) roses for my (then) girlfriend for Valentines’ day (I grow roses). I was sitting on the bus across from this girl that was about three years younger than me. I sat down, put the vase of roses on the seat next to me and prepared to send me girlfriend a text message.

Then I heard her. Bawling her eyes out. The girl across from me had seen the flowers and (I’m guessing) had broken up with her boyfriend a few days prior, and just started crying.

When my stop came, I gathered four roses from my bouquet and said “Look, these were for my girlfriend, but you look like you could use a few. Happy Valentines Day!” and handed her four roses.

The anonymous girl grinned from ear to ear and let out a sheepish “Thank you…”. I smiled back, turn ’round and got off the bus.”

5. Good dog!

“When I was in college, I came down my stairs and saw a dog with no leash or owner in sight. I sat down in the stairs and put my hand out. The dog came right over and was very nice.

So i thought the owner may live near, and his dog got out. So i went upstairs and got a makeshift leash, and got the dog some lunch meat and a bowl of water, and noticed he had a mud covered tag. it was friday at 4:55 and the city office was closing. since i knew it belonged i took the dog in for the weekend, till i could call monday.

I bought some food, a leash and a toy for the dog. i called monday and found the owner, and he was missing his dog for 3 weeks. He cried, i cried. He tried to give me 100 bucks and said thats all he could afford, but i gave it back.

The dog was very sweet, well behaved, never barked.”

6. A helping hand.

“I held an old lady’s hand as she went down the metro escalator.

She just approached me, explained how she had slipped and fallen recently and could use a hand.

I guess it helped that she reminded me of my grandmother.”

7. Get lost, creep.

“I was at a bar with a friend one night when I noticed one of the particularly drunk girls leaving.

One of the shady guys who’d been sitting by himself the whole night watching the women got up and followed her out. I told my friend what I noticed so we walked outside to make sure nothing was up. The guy asked her if she needed a ride home, so before she could reply we walked over to them and my friend asked if either one of them had a cigarette he could bum.

The girl handed him a cigarette and so we stayed there a bit to chat with her. The creepy dude glared at us a bit, but finally gave up and went back inside.

We called her a cab. Glad to know we very likely prevented something.”

8. Broken headlight.

“A couple years ago I had a Mustang, and one of the things that I did was replace my factory headlights with new ones off eBay. I was a student at the time and had noticed another Mustang, same color and all, frequently parked in the deck near me.

One day I saw that someone had broken out his headlight, so I went home, grabbed my original one, bagged it up and left it at his car door. The next day he/she put it on.

Feels good man.”

9. A lifesaver.

“Performed CPR on an elder man in the commissary.

I revived him and had him in the recovery position before EMTs arrived.”

10. Sad.

“It was about 1 AM, I was walking back home with my girlfriend when I saw a dead cat on my road.

I went to move it to the side when I realised it was still moving/alive. I spent a few minutes trying to find the RSPCA number and then realised it had a tag on its collar with a number.

I rang the number once – no one picked up. Tried again – a lady picks up, sleepily.

“Hello?”

“Yes, do you have a grey cat? I’m sorry to tell you, but it got hit by a car”

I told her where I was.

“OMG I’ll be right there.”

She was visibly shaken, so I offered to come with her to the vet’s, holding the cat on my lap – I didn’t want her to have to drive alone, fuss over the cat, and get into an accident.

Stayed for about 45 minutes, eventually she left the cat there to be looked after overnight and drove us back.

He died later – I’m just happy she didn’t find him dead.”

11. Nice work!

“We were on a marching band trip, and our director was in “active negotiations” with the school board about funding: he wanted us to have it, they didn’t.

So he managed to weasel out of them that we would get some per diem money (meaning a little money each day of the trip for food and such) but we had to give back what we didn’t spend, and there was someone that logged the money in and out.

So he encouraged us to “enjoy ourselves” and gave us a basic blank check to spend it on whatever. We ended up getting over $200 because it was a 5-day trip. So most of us didn’t end up wasting it, because we were broke college students and we were feeling frugal.

In the end, each of us had at least $100 left, and there was a group of me and my friends that all went to eat at a restaurant the last night. Well, our director reminded us that we had to spend it all, or give it back. So our waiter was pretty awesome as far as waiters went. He was by every 5 minutes to check things out, always got us refills quickly, etc.

We all just looked at each other when he came with the check. Then as one, we pulled our wallets out, and tossed him a $500+ tip. He was literally crying, and hugging us, etc. It was pretty awesome.

Turns out he was about $500 short of being able to go to school that semester, and he didn’t have any idea where he was going to get the money.

I felt like an awesome person the whole rest of the month.”

12. At the coffee shop.

“I used to go to a drive through coffee shop on my way to work every morning.

While I was waiting to order I saw a dude in the car behind me with a his kid and they looked like they were talking and the dad sadly shook his head and the kid sadly drooped his head, he was probably like 9 or 10.

I’m thinking the dad doesn’t have enough to get his kid a little hot chocolate or something. So I order and get to the window and tell them I want to pay for the guys stuff behind me and add a hot chocolate to their order.

Come to find out all that’s on the order is a small hot chocolate, so the dude was just there to get his kid something knowing he couldn’t get anything and the kid was sad about it. (this is all assumption by the way)

So anyways, I tell them to add a large black coffee and upsize the hot chocolate, so they do and I just drive off. The next day when I got my coffee the guy who works there reaches out the window like he wants to shake my hand and I look at him weirdly and he tells me how the guy teared up when they gave him the coffee and hot chocolate and that it was paid for so he just gave them the money he had and said to pay for the person behind him if it would cover it.

The coffee shop guy said it went on for 22 cars before the poor girl didn’t have enough cash to pay for the like, 4, large drinks the person behind her had ordered.

He said it was the coolest display of humanity he’d seen in awhile and wanted to shake my hand, so I did and he gave me my coffee free that day.”

13. Helping each other out.

“I was waiting in line to pay at the vet, and the guy in front of me was $25 short. He said he would be able to pay on Friday, I think it was Tuesday.

The receptionist said it was their policy that they were not supposed to let the pet go without full payment. This meant he would have to be charged extra for them keeping the pet overnight and the pet would have to be away from home for 3 more days.

He went into one of the exam rooms to talk to the vet about his cat. I told the receptionist to put the rest of his bill on mine.

Two days later I got two cards, one from the Vet thanking me for being kind to fellow customers, and the other from the guy who was short on cash.

I felt amazing for the rest of the week, best $25 I’ve ever spent.”

14. That was nice.

“A young girl who was homeless was outside a McDonald’s I didn’t have any change but had my debt card.

So I asked her if she wanted something to eat and she happily asked for a chicken burger.”

15. Flat tire.

“I saw a guy changing his tire on the side of the road, just as dusk was falling.

Figuring he could use a little extra light, I pulled in behind him and left my headlights on. When I got out of the car and starting talking to the man, he was old and a little frail, so I changed his tire for him.”

16. Good Karma.

“It was pouring down rain one afternoon and I was in Arby’s Drive Thru. The Speaker box was broken for taking orders, so they had one employee to stand by it and relay your order to the kitchen via walkie talkie.

The poor guy didn’t even have an umbrella, so when I drove up I gave him mine. And unsuspectingly when I went to the window to pay for my food, they didn’t charge me.

Good Karma begets Good Karma.”

17. Grazie Mille.

“Two summers ago, I studied abroad in Florence, Italy.

Since it was a college program, I had a bunch of friends there as well. The night before we left, we all had to clean out our apartments. While cleaning out our refrigerators and pantries, we realized we had purchased more food than we could possibly eat (typical Americans).

Not wanting to waste all this good food, we all bagged up our leftovers and took them to the homeless crowd that often gathered outside the Santo Spirito church. It felt great to give them probably a weeks worth of food.

A few tears were shed as they kept saying “grazie mille” (thanks a thousand).”

18. Helping out tourists.

“I was in DC buying a metro ticket to get back to my friend’s house and saw a Mother and 2 children trying to figure out the kiosk.

They seemed confused with the calculating the stops and American money and I asked if she needed help. Turns out they were Australian and I helped them get their metro passes and the right change.

Small and took like 2 minutes, but saved her a headache and missing a train. It felt pretty good.”

19. India.

“Every winter, our family gives out blankets to homeless people or people living in slums.

It gets PRETTY cold in Delhi and every year some people die of the cold. Feels nice to help people. The price of a blanket is less than what a family meal in a restaurant would cost. More Indians from the middle/upper class should do this.

The rich-poor disparity in India is jarringly painful at times.”

20. Thank you for your service!

“Whenever I’m traveling and see a soldier in the airport who is eating at the same restaurant as me, I ask the waiter to put their food on my bill.

I always ask the waiter to not tell them who payed for their meal, just to say thank you. I’ve watched dozens of grown men get teary eyed when an anonymous stranger pays for their meal. My small way of saying thanks.

I get ~20 VIP tickets to college baseball games through work, with free food and awesome seats right on the 3rd baseline.

Whenever I end up with extra tickets I wait outside the front gate for a family looking for tickets, I give them as many free tickets as I can.”

21. They love it.

“I love going into mom & pop shops. It’s not a hipster thing either. I enjoy seeing their faces light up when a customer walks in the door. Most of them are going by the wayside now, and I enjoy helping them any way I can.

They are almost always pleasant to talk to and seem overjoyed when you purchase something from them. I know I am helping them and their family make ends meet.”

22. Good timing.

“Was headed home from a fast food run early in the morning, sometime around 6am coming up to a T junction when I see a guy legging it across the intersection.

As I get to the T junction I see that he had been chasing down the bus but the bus had taken off before he got there so I pulled up and asked him if I could drop him off at the next bus stop and get ahead of the bus.

He jumped in, I caught up with the bus and pulled in front of it as it was at the stop and he managed to get on. Probably cost me a minute, probably saved him a half hour.”

23. That’s awesome!

“I’ve randomly given tourists guided tours of my hometown before.

Only spur of the moment thing I can think of at the moment.”

24. A real-life hero!

“Pulled a woman from a car she had rolled onto its side, was at night on a blind sharp corner, she was crying and shouting for help slumped on the bottom (road side).

She was unhurt, just shaken up and scared. Was pretty cool I guess. Could have been much worse.”

25. Here’s a sixer.

“Several years ago I get a cell phone call from an unknown number. The area code was the same as mine, so nothing unusual. Secondly, my phone number is pretty dang close to a local pizza place’s number, so it wasn’t unusual to get calls for them.

Normally I’d answer and tell them they dialed an 0 where they needed an 8. Yes, I’ve taken pizza orders before from these calls.

So back to the story: I get this call from an unknown local number and answer it. Sounds kind of like a guy I know. Phone is static-ey and cutting out, but I hear him say he is out of gas and needs wants to know if I can come and get him some gas.

This guy is kind of a friend-of-a-friend person. I know him, but not that well. I feel bad he has ran out of gas, so I say I’ll come help him. He tell me where he is, and its right down the road a few miles from my house. I know the area well, so I head out with a gas can in the back of my Jeep.

I get there and see a vehicle I’ve never seen before. Two guys get out as I am coming down the road and as I get closer I realize I have no idea who either of them are. I am tempted to just keep going by, but I was slowing down as I approached, so I feel compelled to stop.

At this point I know that I don’t know either of them. We start to small talk about them running out of gas, and finally come to realize the guy called my number because he thought it was his brother in law’s number.

I ended up taking them for gas, and he bought me a sixer for it.”

26. Help each other out.

“Old, homeless guy sitting on a curb in the cold and drizzle. I went into McDonalds next door, bought a nice, warm meal and cup of coffee for him.

When I handed it him he had this perplexed look on his face, then thanked me like a dozen times.”

27. Have a bite to eat.

“I work in an RSA, it’s a club where war veterans and old folk come to hang out, line dance and drink cheap beer.

Every Sunday we had a regular come in just before closing, usually he’d buy something cheap for himself. On the odd occasion he’d buy something more expensive. Me and some other staff members often discussed him, and we presumed that he gambled on the machines before getting a bite to eat.

I was working on mothers day, which happened to be a Sunday, and after a busy lunchtime we were all ready to close, only half an hour or so to go. Then in comes the usual man, except this time he’s with his wife and two kids. They weren’t dressed the smartest, slightly dirty and they all looked at the menu with that sort of “sh*t this is expensive” look on their faces.

We watched them half argue over what they were going to eat before they moved up to the counter and ordered. One kids crumbed fish. That was all, on mothers day, for four of them. To make things worse the man paid in small change and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the man as they took a seat at a nearby table.

I walked into the kitchen as the chef was preparing their order and saw some extra roast beef and some chicken extra’s that were half cooked. I dropped them into the deep fryer and told the chef i’d get rid of them for him.

I plated up the two pieces of chicken and the roast, along with their kids fish and took it down to their table. I didn’t want to embarrass them in any way so I just sorta said “here’s some extras and we’re about to close so I don’t know if you guys want them or not?”.

The mother said thank you, and the dad looked at me with the most grateful look on his face.”

28. Some good tips.

“Variety of little things pop into my head:

I always carry jumper cables. No so much for me but other people I find in parking lots.

Guy at a gas station with kids asked for a couple of bucks so he could afford gas to get home. I just filled up his tank.

Bought coats for our daycare. Turns out the kids weren’t going outside because some parents couldn’t afford coats. So now they have a “I forgot” tub. We let the staff know that if a kid needs to go home with a coat we would replace them.

Carried groceries for the elderly lady who lived upstairs above me. She would always bake me nice things.

Stop and give directions. My work always has lost people so I end up walking them to their destination.

The thing I remember is that it doesn’t take much time or effort but can make a lot of difference to the person just to know someone CARES.”

What’s the nicest thing YOU’VE done for a stranger?

Tell us all about it in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!