Ever had a good deed unnoticed? These people haven't; in fact, things didn't go quite the way they planned.
That’s Embarrassing.
“A beautiful lady was sitting besides me with a cute baby. We were traveling in a train. I was heading for a professional meet. That baby in the laps of her mother was crying. Her mother tried to calm her, but she would not stop crying. As a good citizen, I thought I could help and asked to hold her baby for some time so that she could rest for a while. She was glad to do so. I took the baby, she was still crying. After about a minute, I felt wet on my thigh. The wetting started to spread longitudinally. I lifted the baby to find that she pee on me. Oh god! her mother was resting and her eyes were closed. So, I didn’t wake her up. After half an hour she opened her eyes. I returned the baby to her. The surprising thing was, that the baby stopped crying after she wet my pants. I kept my laptop bag on my lap for the rest of my journey, as it looked like, I peed in my pants.” (Source)
Um, Ouch!
“We were invited to a surprise birthday party of a lady friend. The party was at mutual friends home. I arrived a bit late because of work and received constant messages that the beautiful Siberian husky at the home where the party was, was in trouble. On my arrival I was told the husky had a bone wedged in its top jaw. The husky (Monty) was very relaxed and while I sat down he came to greet me. I did not touch him as I could not read him. Those blue eyes were just too deceiving. Later the evening and 3 whiskeys further, I got a plan to cover Monty with a thick blanket including his eyes and use a large serving spoon to remove the bone. The lady owner of the dog said they don’t have money for a vet. Monty lay on his side we covered his body and eyes and in a quick motion I removed the bone. In less than 5 seconds the bone was out. Monty even picked the bone up and started chewing it again. I stood back, observed Monty from a distance. Everyone cheered. I was real relieved it worked out well. Plan well executed. Monty seemed fine he was done with the bone. To pat him on the side of his neck my hand went past his mouth. He grabbed my hand. The bottom k9’s in the palm and the top ones into my thumb bone. Monty shook my hand three times then grabbed the other helper’s wrist. Luckily the other helper (my brother in law) had a large wristwatch on. That night I broke two rules 1)Don’t touch dogs. 2)Don’t drink hard liquor. I have a couple of other new rules as well but lets leave it at that. Dogs Don’t have the same sense of appreciation as people they have their own brain with a set of long teeth to go with that.” (Source)
Instant Karma.
“Few days ago, we were hanging out at Juhu Beach, Bombay. As it was Sunday the beach was crowded & everybody there was enjoying the beautiful morning. In a knee deep water, people were taking photos . So there was this couple who was taking selfies. The guy was really struggling as there was flip cover for phone & the size of phone was also big. Also perhaps the guy wanted clear photographs so instead of making use of the front camera he preferred the rear. So the struggle was real. Seeing them struggling & I myself being a photo freak went straight to them and said,’May I help you? I can take photos of both of you if you wish.’ To which, both of them replied simultaneously, lady replied with big smile on her face,’Yeah, sure’ & our beloved Mr. with a rather rude tone, ‘NO, mind your own business, we are okay.’ Rude was his tone, but more rude was his expressions. After that both me & his spouse were like – WTF. There was nothing to feel humiliated about but as I was just being polite and nice to them & also there were quite a few people who were watching this scene, so I felt it a little bit. After happening of that senseless rejection I came back where I was seated & they continued their struggle. ….& after a while, something totally undesirable happened. Yes, he dropped his phone into water. I have heard that Karma always plays its role, but this fast, I never knew.” (Source)
“There’s a big list, but this one tops it.”
“I was home alone. To kill my boredom, I cooked food on my own. The food was very tasty. I had a good dinner. Everything went good until I decided to give away the remaining food to a kid in the nearby slum. The kid accepted the food and ate it. She was down with food poisoning the next day. The poor soul suffered with fever, throat pain and vomiting for two days. I suffered extreme dispraise from almost everyone in the colony for giving away stale food. Especially, to a kid. I took her to the doctor, bought medicines and spent time with her. Her parents made sure that I felt like the most embarrassed guy in the history of humanity. I was not offended a bit. I would’ve been equally angry if I was put in their situation. So, it was understandable. Surprisingly, the food had no effect on my body. I don’t know if it was the food that I gave or something else that made the girl sick. But, it was one h*ll of a backfire.” (Source)
“Because of my ‘nice’ action I had a very expensive mobile phone broken and was semi responsible for someone being gravely injured.”
“Simples. Lets go back a few years, to 2007. I’m 17. I used to go to a lot of parties, as did many of my friends. Anyway, one of by friends who was a guy had a girlfriend. I was never particularly close to her – she seemed nice, she just wasn’t a particular friend. Anyway, at a party, I saw his girlfriend getting off with another guy. I took a photo for proof, but then decided I wouldn’t tell him his girlfriend was cheating on him as maybe her cheating was a one off act, and anyway I didn’t want to cause him heartbreak. Only it didn’t stop there. At every party, as soon as she had a chance to get away from him, she’d cheat on him with this other guy. Everyone in the year at school knew, apart from the boyfriend (my friend). And all the time the girlfriend carried on as if she was a loyal girlfriend, going on dates with him, hugging him etc. Anyway, I decided that this couldn’t go on. I took another photo at the next party I was at and the girlfriend was getting off with this other guy. Then I took my friend aside, and explained to him what was happening, how long it had been going on for. He thanked me calmly, after I had shown him the photos on my phone. He took the phone out of my hand, and walked through the house to the room where his girlfriend was cheating on him. He walked in. The two people were just talking to each other, but as soon as they saw my friends’ face, they knew they were busted. The girlfriend tried to cosy up to him and pretend she was really sorry, it wouldn’t happen again etc. He responded by hurling my phone right into the guys face. Then he began beating the guy up – and I mean seriously beating the guy up – he broke this guy’s nose and I’m fairly sure cracked a couple of ribs. Then he just left the party, leaving behind my ruined phone, a beaten up guy, and a lot of scared party-goers.” (Source)
Beggars Apparently Can Be Choosers.
“It was a super hot summer two years ago and I saw a homeless guy standing outside the front of a 7-11. He asked me for money and I didn’t have any cash so I said, ‘sorry, I don’t have any.’ It was very hot, so I wanted to find a way to help. I mean it was probably 90s and it was the kind of sweat that makes the back of your shirt stick to your back. Well, I bought a deer park water bottle, like the 50 oz one and I walked out and tried to hand it to him. I was already broke, so for me to spend $2 bucks meant a lot for me. The conversation went something like this Me: Here you go sir, I know it’s hot out and I want to give you this (hands water bottle). Him: I asked for a dollar, not water. Me: So you aren’t going to take it? Him: Excuse me sir, I said I wanted a dollar looks away I just got in my car and drove off, this guy was very ungrateful considering he was asking people for money!” (Source)
Never Make That Assumption.
“One day I was commuting on a train. The train was fully packed, when a pregnant woman entered and could not get a seat. Instinctively, I stood up and told her that since she was pregnant she could take my seat. Turned out, she wasn’t pregnant.” (Source)
A Traumatizing Experience.
“I was 7 years old. I was standing in line to go to the bathroom. And my bladder was about to explode. At the time, I attended a legalistic Baptist school. There were rules for everything. For example, girls could only wear dresses; pants were forbidden. Girls couldn’t wear dangly earrings. And so on. Another rule they had was that students could only use the bathroom at predetermined times when the whole class was allowed to go. This is why I had to go to the bathroom so badly. The class walked to the bathrooms in a single file line. There was absolutely no talking in the hallways. Only 2 boys and 2 girls were allowed in the bathrooms at a time. When one came out, another went in. The girl in front of me was Sarah. As I stood there, I noticed that the zipper on her dress had unzipped about half an inch. I was forbidden to talk, so in my 7-year-old brain I decided the best thing to do would be to simply reach out and zip up Sarah’s dress the rest of the way. I thought this would be a nice thing to do. After all, if I didn’t do anything, the zipper might slip down even more. Now, it is important to note here that Sarah’s father was the vice principal of the school. It is also important to note that from his office Sarah’s father had a clear view of the bathrooms and the line I was standing in. As I reached out my hand to zip up Sarah’s dress, I heard a loud yell and a man charging toward me. I then felt the iron grip of his hand on my shoulder ripping me out of line and marching me toward the principal’s office. At that instant, my bladder decided it could not wait any longer… and I began to pee all over myself. It ran all down my legs, into my socks, and into my shoes. I was utterly and totally humiliated. And to make matters worse, I began crying. Here I had tried to do something nice for a girl and her father had assumed that I was trying to do the exact opposite. He thought I was trying to unzip his daughter’s dress. After I explained to the principal what had happened, he decided I would not get a spanking. (They still gave out spankings at that school with a large wooden paddle with holes drilled in it.) I then returned to class and sat in my own urine for the rest of the day until my mom picked me up after school. This day ranks as one of the worst days of my entire childhood, possibly the worst. Maybe this is why I have a natural distrust of authority.” (Source)
“This isn’t the nicest thing I’ve done, but I’ve regretted this nice gesture for the last 15 years of my life.”
“In high school, I was in love with a girl named Kristen. I dreamed about her every day and would have done anything to be with her forever. She was my soulmate, my passion, my everything. I loved everything about her. Once we went on a church youth group trip to Tennessee in a big white van. During the trip, Kristen was having trouble getting the film in her camera to the next slot. So, being the get-r-done man that I am, I said, ‘Let me see it, Kristen, I’ll fix it.’ She handed it over. I tried moving the slide but it seemed stuck. Brute force wasn’t going to fix this issue (which was a good thing because I didn’t have much of that.) I started using my brain instead — I didn’t know anything about cameras but I figured it must be something stuck inside, so I popped open the back of the camera. ‘What are you doing?!’ she screamed. ‘Um… fixing your camera?’ I said. ‘You just ruined my film! It’s exposed now! You just broke it!!!’ With that, she grabbed it back and I felt wretched. I broke my love’s camera! I ruined her pictures! I kept apologizing but there was nothing I could do to make it right. She stopped talking to me for a week. It was h*ll and even now I find it upsetting to think about. Deflated and frustrated, I started dating another girl a few weeks later. After 3 years, we broke up and I married another girl, who I then divorced 7 years later. Throughout all of this, Kristen and I stayed in touch. We wrote long emails and handwritten letters to each other. Every week I’d look forward to hearing from her. We went through a couple years we wrote handwritten letters back and forth. Our communications never failed to bring a smile to my lips. Even now when I think of them I feel happy. Then one day she suddenly stopped communicating. I emailed many times to no response. It took me a couple years to figure out she stopped because her husband forbade it. It broke my heart and I can’t even tell you how many times I cried over her complete and utter and sudden silence. If I hadn’t had tried to fix that stupid camera, instead of being apart, we might be together today. Many years later, she told me she had a crush on me at the time when I broke the camera but was too immature to know how to handle it. In her immaturity, she thought not talking to me would make me interested and want her more… when instead it turned me off enough to turn my attention elsewhere. It’s 15 years after that camera incident and there’s rarely a day that goes by when I don’t think of her. I have a file with our memories together… the yellow post-it note with her number on it. The pink post-it note that says, ‘You are so cool, funny, awesome, and nice. ? Kristen.’ I have the greeting card that says ‘I hope we stay friends (or whatever) forever’ and I imagine my happiness if the ‘or whatever’ was true. I have years worth of letters printed out and the original handwritten letters. Every now and then I bring out the file and look through everything and smile and laugh and cry. The truth is, I still love her.” (Source)
Stabbed In The Back, Literally.
“I just finished running 8 miles and felt like I deserved a reward. I had only a single $1 in my pocket, so I decided to buy my favorite Milk Duds for my fix. I began walking home at about 9pm when I saw a very sad looking homeless camped behind a Taco Bell. He didn’t see me, but as I munched on my delicious chocolate Milk Duds, I figured sharing some of them with him would cheer him up. I said ‘Hey man’, and his head perked up. ‘Would you like some milk duds?’. I walked over to him and splashed a good handful of chocolate-y goodness. it was hard for me to give away so many after my run, but I wanted this poor soul to know people care. All he said to me in return was ‘Milk Duds?’ really quietly like he’s never heard of them before. I proceeded to tell him ‘yeah, they’re delicious …. have a good night!’ And walked away, admittingly feeling pretty good about myself. I continued walking home, about a 1.5 mile walk from the store, and it’s getting darker. Suddenly, someone shouts ‘Dats him’, very strangely and angrily. I turn around to see two people running/wobbling at me. Immediately, I turn around to run and smash directly into a stranger that knocks me flat on my a, he was with them. They had me cornered. As I scrambled to my feet and prepare to defend myself against three men somehow, I recognize one of them … It was the SAME homeless man I gave a handful of Milk Duds to! even worse, I think he was still chewing on them. He didn’t say a word, but his friend pulled a knife and began flashing it in my face! ‘All your money, now!’ He shouted out me. However, like I already said, I only had $1, which I already spent on the Milk Duds … half of which I gave to the exact bum that was robbing me! I attempted to explain the situation and how I have no money. They didn’t seem to be happy or even understand what I was saying, and the man with the knife grew angrier and angrier every time he asked for my money, to which I would tell him I had none. Then, out of nowhere he lunged at me and stabbed my gut with his knife repeatedly. I ended up being stabbed 7 times, and they checked my pockets after I began to pour blood. I couldn’t yell for help, blood was literally filling my mouth and splashing out of my teeth. They left me there as they ran away and called me a ‘f**king loser’ and a bunch of other names I couldn’t make out from my shock. Suddenly, by sheer luck, a police cars lights lit up and the red and blue flashed against my bloody body. The officer threw me in his car and drove like a madman to the hospital. It was unbelievable, like a dream, and I fell unconscious before I arrived at the hospital. I was told I woke up 2 days later after being unconscious due to my extreme blood loss. I was told how lucky I was to be alive. A nurse told me it was a miracle I woke up after the amount of blood I lost. When she left, I was all alone. I lifted my shirt up and saw multiple, disgusting gash marks all along my abdomen. In retrospect, I should have just ate the Milk Duds by myself.” (Source)
Lost For Words.
“I had this weird moment, as a pedestrian, waiting for the traffic light to change so I could cross the road. The road was not that busy but where I, and a dozen others, were waiting was in the city, and I knew trucks and vans come barreling through the intersection at random times. So I wasn’t about to chance it by jaywalking. A young man and woman approached the intersection and I noticed them because they were having one of those intense conversations that looks like they’ve blocked out the whole world. I was bored, so I watched them, wondering if they were new lovers or old friends, or what their story was. And because I was watching them, I was the first to see they hadn’t noticed the red light and were about to step off the curb and into the path of oncoming traffic. Namely, a car that was closing in fast. I leaned forward, grabbing the nearest person, the man, by the back of his shirt, trying to say ‘Stop’. For some reason my mouth froze – the words ‘stop’, or ‘look out’ didn’t come out at all. I made some sort of strangled gasping noise instead. My adrenalin had spiked so I didn’t know my own strength. I accidentally hauled his ass to the pavement, spinning him around to safety like he was a sack of flour. This of course had the effect of stopping his deep conversation with the girl who also stopped instantly. They both STARED at me, astonished. The car whooshed safely by, and they didn’t even see it. She was too busy letting fly with expletives for ‘attacking’ her man and being a ‘sick effer’. He just got up and glared at me like I was a piece of scum, and said I’d ruined his best shirt. At this point I think I was in total shock. The people around were staring. Not one of them spoke in my defense. Had they not seen what had happened? Still I couldn’t think of a word to say beyond ‘But…’ while I pointed helplessly in the direction the car had gone and then at the red stop-pedestrian signal. The lights then changed, all the pedestrians began to cross, leaving the three of us to it. The man pulled the woman away from me and they stalked off, she flipping me the bird as the final insult. I meant well but it left such a bad taste in my mouth. I hate knowing that I freeze. It was actually awful having no words and I write for a living! And nothing! The encounter was embarrassing and hurtful. Even knowing I may have saved them (I am still not sure how close it would have been) didn’t stop how lousy their words felt ringing in my ears. And the knowledge no one spoke up. Wow. That sucked. I probably would do it again – but I’d brace myself”. (Source)
Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due.
“I’m not sure it ‘backfired’, but when I was developing the cosmic microwave anisotropy project, I worried that my young post-doc, George Smoot, would not get sufficient credit for the excellent work he was doing under my leadership. I was the founder of the project, and the ‘principal investigator’, and as such, would probably get more credit than I deserved. So I became his mentor. I got him appointed to a very important committee investigating the safety of nuclear reactors; it got him exposure to top people in physics and in government. Whenever I made presentations, I showed his photo and talked about George and the wonderful work he was doing. When we finally had the instrument operational on an airplane, and made the discovery of the cosine anisotropy, and I had written the paper to be published in the Physical Review Letters, I decided to put George’s name first in the list of three authors. That way he would be noticed. I told him so, and he expressed both surprise and gratitude. Even so, I wound up receiving most the major rewards of the project, including a faculty position at Berkeley, the National Science Foundation Waterman Award (OK—it was given to me for three projects, not just that one), the Texas Instruments Founders Prize, and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. It was appropriate to continue the project on a satellite, and I felt George could do that without my help, so I left it to him. I feared it would take a decade or more, not because of any physics challenge (the instrument was basically the same as we had put on an airplane) but because of NASA’s bureaucracy and political issues. What I didn’t expect was that George would never let anyone know that the first stage of the project, mounted on an airplane and detecting the first clear anisotropy, had been led by me. In his popular book, he referred to the idea of that original experiment as ‘being in the air’, as if anyone beside me had proposed it be done. He said the inspiration had come from a book by Jim Peebles—without mentioning that it was me who had read the book and been inspired by it. Or that although Peebles talked about it, he did not think the measurement was feasible. The book read as if he had created the airplane project from scratch, with a little bit of help from me. As the satellite project developed, I discovered that almost everyone thought that George had been the founder of the project at Berkeley. Even John Mather, who shared the satellite and the Nobel Prize with George, wrote in his popular book that the original airplane anisotropy project had been founded and developed by George, with me only as a minor contributor. John has expressed to me his embarrassment at having written that. He had been working closely with George, but George had never mentioned my role in the first phase of the project. In retrospect, if I had to trade my early rewards (especially the faculty position) for a later share in the Nobel Prize, I would not have done so. I never regretting leaving the project when it had to face the bureaucracy of NASA. George deserved the Nobel Prize, if for nothing else, then for 12 years of fighting unreasonable NASA politics. He earned it. Meanwhile, I got to do many other things, including founding the Berkeley Supernova Cosmology Project, creating Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (the predominant method for radiocarbon dating today), seminal work in paleoclimate, geomagnetic reversals, cofounding Berkeley Earth with my daughter, etc. etc. Much of that was made possible by my early recognition for the microwave project. The supernova search project was made possible by the unfettered research grant I received for the NSF Waterman Award. You can go to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC now and see the instrument that was built under my leadership, the one that is responsible for the discovery of the cosine microwave anisotropy — but the label on the instrument refers only to George Smoot. No mention of the project’s founder, leader, and Principal Investigator. I did not anticipate that my role would be so forgotten, cut out of history. In retrospect, I would have done only one thing differently. I don’t regret mentoring George; he is a very talented physicist. My only change: I would not have put George’s name first on the paper I wrote announcing the discovery of the cosmic microwave anisotropy.” (Source)