It was the 1995 Christmas season, a flat tyre had forced the driver of a sleek limousine to pull over onto the shoulder of a busy New Jersey Highway. The chauffeur stood by the stranded car hoping someone would see their predicament and stop by and help.
At last, a passing motorist stopped and changed the flat tyre. On completing the task he was thanked by the chauffeur.
It was then a darkened window was lowered and the occupant asked what he could do to repay the man for his help.
‘Just send my wife a bouquet of flowers’ said the man and handed the passenger a card with his wife’s name and address.
Two weeks later a gorgeous bouquet of orchids arrived at the designated address with a card attached, signed by a famous billionaire and his wife. The card simply said:
We paid off your home mortgage.
Taken from 500 Illustrations by G Curtis Jones and Paul H Jones, a collection of inspirational and thought-provoking stories and anecdotes. Or as the subtitle says: Stories from Life for Preaching & Teaching.
Think what a better world it would be if we all carried out acts of random kindness.
When I picked this book up from a bookshop, I let a lady who was laden down with heavy books go first. You have missed one I said, The Witch of Portobello. She was amazed as it had caught her eye, but she did not pick it up as she did not know the author. Now is your chance, I told her, and she added it to her purchase. [see The Witch of Portobello in a bookshop]
I explained to her that it was synchronicity, and told her the story of the Alchemist Stone as told to me by Ken Crane.
I mentioned Carolena Sabah who stars as Athena in the film of The Witch of Portobello. When I got home I found that Carolena had posted as a facebook note a similar tale Kindness is Contagious involving herself in an act of random kindness rescuing a stranded motorist to that of the Good Samaritan. Not only that, but the time when she posted it was when I was sat in the Castle Grounds in Guildford flipping through 500 Illustrations and it caught my eye!
Tags: 500 Illustrations, good Samaritans, kindness
Keithpp's Blog 
April 16, 2011 at 6:30 pm |
Wow… What a wonderful story. I wonder if the story in the 500 Illustrations are true or not.
Thank you for sharing this story Keith!
Love
C.
April 16, 2011 at 8:31 pm |
I do not know as it does not say, although I admit to having not read the introduction, I just dived straight in and read at random. What though I do note is that it does not say where they have come from, no citing of source.
I have found at least one story I have seen elsewhere. A child being taken to see Mahatma Gandhi and asked please tell the child not to eat sugar. Gandhi says come back next week. When asked why, he replies because now I am eating sugar, but next week I will not be.
I have recently seen the same story attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.
Maybe they are like stories handed down. Rather like the stories told by Nasrudin and Paulo Coelho.
– Like the Flowing River