Humanity

[Hand Shandy]

On the day when two men who swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath are convicted of trying to blow people up, and an 18-year-old was convicted of shooting an 11-year-old dead, one man has this afternoon gone a long way to restoring my faith in humanity.

 

How can just one person achieve this, I hear you ask?

 

Well, let me explain.

 

At the end of last week my exhaust started to make somewhat sickly noises, noises which progressively became worse until today I thought I should do something about it.

 

I took my elderly yet predominantly healthy car to one of the larger tyre and exhaust outlets (I'm not going to name names, but they allegedly fit quickly), where the bloke says he'll take a look at it.

 

He sticks it up on the ramp and quickly finds the problem - a crack in the pipe between the back-box and the catalytic convertor. Nothing else, just a crack. He tells me I'll just need the rear something or another replaced and it shouldn't be too much.

 

Back into the office we go to check the part on the computer, and I know somethings wrong when his eyes widen considerably. He then turns to me and tells me it's going to cost me £120. And they won't be able to do it until tomorrow.

 

£120!!!! My jaw obviously drops and you can tell he's actually feeling a bit sorry for me. He then takes me too one side, away from the other bloke working in the office, and proceeds to tell me that if I take it to another tyre and exhaust place in the city, they might be able to just cut the cracked bit of pipe out and weld in a replacement piece. It'll probably be a bit cheaper, he says.

 

Faced with £120 or 'a bit cheaper', I decide to go for the latter and make my way into town. I go into this new place, explain what the other bloke had said and asked what they could do. He takes a look and says they can do it.

 

How much, I ask. £40 he says. Come back in half an hour and it'll be done.

 

I am a seriously happy bunny - that first bloke's honesty and kindness has saved me £80, a not insubstantial amount in these times of economic hardship. I'm tempted to stop in tomorrow and bung him a fiver to buy himself a pint!

 

So, my question to you is this. What have people done for you, out of the goodness of their own hearts, which has restored you faith in humanity?

 

And Alan Sex's picture posting, while greatly appreciated, doesn't count!

[Section_31]

haha, I started reading that expecting to hear that someone had given you CPR and saved your life or something, but instead I read that a mechanic - who you'd expect to rip you off - didn't rip you off.

 

How far we have indeed fallen!

 

In answer to your question, some woman stopped me and my mate getting mugged when we were kids in Toxteth. That was quite nice, it was fourteen years ago though and can't really think of anything recent. I'll have a ponder.

[Paulie Dangerously]

I had a similar thing recently when I was trading my Wii for an Xbox 360. Gamestation offered me £150 for it which I wasn't going to take but the lad behind the counter told me to go onto the CEX website, print off what they would pay (as it's the best offers) and bring it in because if you have proof of a better price Gamestation have to match it. Ended up getting £238 worth of exchange instead of £150. Kudos to that geek, kudos

[airbags]

Woman in New York found my wallet and rang all the numbers in it in an effort to return it. Eventually got it back without a problem.

Had around 300 dollars in it and not a cent touched. What a nice woman! Never got to meet her to offer my thanks

[kelster]

Nothing recently. It's a harsh, unforgiving, dog-eat-dog world out there.

[Hand Shandy]

I admit, the cause of my happiness is somewhat base, but I was so gob-smacked when he told me to go somewhere else.

 

As you say, you do (rightly or wrongly) expect mechanics to rip you off and he could so easily have kept his trap shut. 'Kerr-ching', one more sale for the tills.

 

Instead, he goes out of his way to help a fellow human-being out, even if it is only to save a few pennies.

[The Acolyte]

Not being sarcastic but that does make you just that more trusting of people.

I remember getting drunk and not realisng till the next day that I'd lost my phone. Not only did the mincab driver call the numbers in it and finally get hold of me but he drove all the way across town to give it back.

Was so grateful I gave him a fiver.

 

Another time I lost my personal phone in a black cab on the way to meet a friend (I know becoming a habit). Didn't realise till I'd left said friend and rushed to another mates place to freshen up for a night out.

Me dad calls me on my work mobile saying some cab driver has my personal mobile.

Minutes later I got a call from the first friend, only turned out he'd got in the same cab as I'd got out of to meet him earlier. Cabbie tells him about the phone and hands it to him.

Phone lost and recovered inside an hour!

Never got to thank the cabbie personally.

[taliesin08]

I agree with Bill Hicks views on humanity when he said...

 

"People suck, and that's my contention. I can prove it on a scratch of paper with a pen. Give me a fucking Etch-a-sketch, I'll do it in three minutes. The proof, the fact, the factorum. I'll show my work, case closed. I'm tired of this back-slapping "aren't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are."

[She Knows It]

This is a lovely story that was in the news over the weekend.

[Cosmos]

This is a lovely story that was in the news over the weekend.

 

Oh good, he's joining the marines.

[god knows]

Went to the 86 cup final with a load of mates and stayed in a mates gaff in Earls Court. was only young and ended up in bed with a dirty whore. Was just about to give her the bells of shannon when a friend popped his head round the door and said she was a smack rat. I could have got bad aids.