There are all kinds of experience levels in your retail employees, just like there are all kinds of customers.

In this case, it took someone who had been there awhile to help a customer who seemed at first to be very confused.

Or maybe it was just their heart that set them apart.

Read on and decide for yourself.

“Sir, can I help you-? Oh my.”

This is a story about Sir.

In college, I worked in a large retail store part time during the year and full time during the summer.

My second summer on the job, I had been sort of promoted to second in charge within the domestics department.

All day, every day I’d maintain the aisles and back room and stock shelves.

One day, I am refolding a wall of towels that I had watched get systematically destroyed by a family redecorating their bathroom.

I’m slightly grumps because we have all of the towels open and displayed in plain sight and customers often unknowingly damage the towels when they open them and then decide they do not want them anymore.

Every time, they would replace them by twirling the towel into a heap and stuffing it into the shelf, often snagging the fabric (we had horrible metal shelves that corporate refused to replace).

This is when his day took a turn.

I’m sorting through the crumpled towels, attempting to carefully extract them from the jaws of mischief when a New Employee approaches me.

NE: Um, sorry. Could you help me please?

Me: Hey, yeah. What’s up?

NE: Well, uh. There’s a guy who needs some help and I’m not sure how to help him. I think he’s Chinese but I can’t understand what he wants.

Me: Ok, sure. Where is he?

She points towards vacuums, giggles uncomfortably, and then walks away.

I’m a little confused that she just booked it, but she’s new and doesn’t really understand how to hand off customers yet.

I leave my department and see a little old Asian guy wandering near the vacuum aisle. I casually walk on up to him.

Me: “Sir, can I help you-? Oh my.”

I almost step back as Sir starts waving his hands around like a lunatic.

It was a little overwhelming.

But it turned out, the man just needed help.

He’s spinning his arms around and reaching out towards me and twisting his hands around in a lewd manner.

He even mimicked spraying something on his face. I now understand why NE got intimidated.

If his face hadn’t been so pained and humiliated, I would’ve thought he was just being rude.

He continued to make these motions while I looked at him, attempting to understand what was going on.

He pointed at his shopping cart, towards the shelves, and then started the motions again.

That’s when it clicked: I was in a real life game of charades.

Once I figured this out, I began to focus on what he was doing. I also looked at his cart, saw a sun hat and sunblock, and realized what it was.

He wanted a personal fan that sprays water on your face. I motioned for him to come with me, and led him to the back of the store where an end cap had a display of plastic fan bottles.

The look of happiness and relief on his face was like sunshine. His excitement was almost tangible as he picked out a couple and then began to mime out another item.

They formed a relationship that came in handy for them both in the future.

I spent 15 more minutes helping him find the items he was unable to locate, all through his movements and gestures (I will never forget him describing Hot Sauce).

I hadn’t had that much fun with a customer until that point or since. He was absolutely delightful.

He eventually became a regular at the store. He began to call me “Jean” (meh, it starts with an J, so close enough). I also began to carry a pad of paper and a pencil in order to help us out sometimes.

A friend of mine taught me some basic formal Chinese for when I was confused (just simple stuff like “how many,” “I don’t understand,” “please draw it”).

My last year working there, Sir brought in his son to the store and brought him to my department.

Sir’s son was just as cheery as his father. He thanked me for being such a help to his father and apologized for any time it took me away from my job.

I was absolutely touched that he had mentioned me to his family.

Sir was well known and well liked in the store by the time I had left, and I was certain that he’d have a charades partner for as long as he wanted.

This is a heartwarming tale.

Let’s find out if Reddit thinks so, too.

It only takes one good person.

Now that would be pretty funny.

It’s a win/win, really.

We go the extra mile for nice people.

A humbling experience, I’m sure.

People like this belong in retail.

Unfortunately, the kind souls are usually run off.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.