Every once in a while, something small happens at work that reminds you there’s still goodness in the world.

So, what would you do if a customer’s card was declined and you could tell they hadn’t eaten properly in days, but store policy restricted you from helping?

Would you bend the rules to help anyway? Or would you hope that someone else notices and lends a hand?

In the following story, one grocery store worker encounters this very situation, and the latter happens.

Here’s how it all played out.

Finally leaving my service job, so I thought I’d share my favorite story.

I’ve worked front end service at a grocery store for the last 2 and a half years. This happened early this year, while it was still pretty cold out (relevant later).

It was a slow weekday evening, and I was on a checkstand. Two customers showed up in my line; the first was a younger guy, probably early 20s.

He was buying three packs of ramen, a 10-pack of tortillas, some deli meat, and cheese.

The poor guy looked like ****: frazzled hair, deep rings around his eyes, slumped shoulders, etc.

He barely returned my hello, and I knew just by the look on his face that this was more than the result of a bad day.

He was not in a good mental state at all.

She felt terrible that there wasn’t more she could do.

His total came to about $15, but his card was declined, so he asked me to take off everything but the ramen and started digging around for some change.

He got about a dollar scrounged up, and I told him not to worry about it.

A few cents out of my till wasn’t worth this guy going completely hungry.

I wanted to pay for his food for him, but company policy is very strict about that, and I wasn’t about to lose the job, even though I honestly hated it.

He thanked me and shambled out of the store. I felt sick, and I wished I could have done more for him. God knows he needed some help.

The older woman asked her to hold onto the food.

The second customer was an older woman and her adult daughter, just in the store for some late-night snacks.

The mom noticed the food he left behind and asked why he didn’t take it, so I told her he couldn’t pay for it.

She immediately perked up and asked her daughter to go check for him outside, and told me to hold on to it so she could find him and buy it for him.

She left the store after finishing her order, and I held onto the food for about twenty minutes before she came back.

She never saw them again, but will never forget what happened.

Her daughter had found him across the street at a bus stop, eating dry ramen in 40-degree weather without a coat.

She bought his food and got twenty in cash. I didn’t even need to ask; I knew she got the money for him.

I thanked her and told her how generous she was and that I wished I could have done it for him myself.

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I never saw any of them again, but I hope he felt loved after that and used the money to get to someone who could take care of him.

I never liked my job, but there were a few moments like this that made it somewhat worth it.

Wow! What a nice lady!

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to this situation.

Here’s someone who paid out of their pocket.

Yet another reader who was able to help someone.

This person was on the other side of it.

According to this person, they try to do at least one random act of kindness daily.

We need more people like her! This was an amazing thing she did!