Help Others.org: Learning From A Cabbie -- A Kindness Story

A couple weeks ago I was standing out on a cold evening in New York City waiting for a cab to come take me to a nightclub. After about 5 minutes of waiting, I was picked up by a middle-eastern gentleman in his 30's, and he was clearly angry. Swear words left and right about how horrible New Yorkers were. I knew my cab ride would only be about 10 minutes and there was a part of me that wanted to be silent and just move on with my life, but I also wanted to try and connect.

I asked the man what the issue was, and after some beating around the bush, he told me that he had just come from JFK airport without a customer. For those that don't know, this is basically $70 in lost fare, which is a fairly big deal. I tried my best to commisserate and share in his frustration. Over the course of that cab ride, what started as pure anger slowly shifted to inquiry. He mentioned that he had read an article a while back which said that the happiest people are the ones that give, so he hoped he'd have more chances to give in his life. I was really starting to enjoy being in the presence of this introspective man! We continued talking about why giving is so beneficial both to giver and receiver and different ways to practice it.

As we arrived at my destination, I paid my fare by credit card (with generous tip), but didn't want to stop there. I pulled out an extra $20 and said:

'sir, since we've been talking about giving this whole time, I wanted to share that feeling of giving with you. I've already paid my fare, but here's an extra little bit. you can keep it if you want, since you're already down $70 from jfk. But, if you want to experience the power of the gift, then tell the next passenger in this cab that their ride is a gift from another and they can share their gratitude in whatever way they wish.'

I thought I was being a pretty cool guy at this point! but that's when the cabbie blew me away. He turned toward me, tears in his eyes, and he says:

'sir, i have better idea. you give that $20 to a homeless person around here and i will gift the next passenger with free ride myself.'

wow. this man was literally yelling obscenities to me 10 minutes ago. i got out of the car and walked around for a bit trying to find someone to get a meal for before heading to my destination.

was an absolute honor meeting that cabbie and learning the lesson of how everyone is capable of giving and totally flooring another with their generosity.

Reader Comments

32 comments: page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Frederick Dsouza wrote: I am a yellow cab driver myself past 4 years after changing 12 jobs in my life due to all kind of abuses employers do. I will tell and post this story for other yellow cab drivers/cab drivers to know. I have tons of stories to tell on daily basis. Specially when my passengers are drunk they vomit secrets which probably they never told any one. Its dangerous job but i use partition to cut down the danger. Overall this is the best job even though the money is less.

Jenna Norwood wrote: I had a similar experience with an angry cabbie who took me home from the airport recently. I was out of cash, so i asked if he could take a credit card which immediately made him very annoyed. So i said he could take me to an atm to get cash. Turns out that he didn't have a credit card processing system & he had to go through another company (by calling in for approval) to do it, which was time consuming and cost him money. Apparently, i was the fifth person that day who wanted to pay with a credit card. I listened to his story & apologized for the inconvenience. He immediately became apologetic himself and said i had nothing to apologize for. He insisted upon taking the credit card, as opposed to going out of our way to an atm. I planned to give him a good tip for the inconvenience, but his method of handling the transaction would have required that i state the tip amount before he called in the charge. I was devastated that i couldn't tip him. He smiled and said it was fine. I had a copy of my documentary film about health with me, "supercharge me! " so i gave it to him and he was very grateful. He said that he & his family needed to get healthier. Since then, i've been offering the option of my film or a tip to anyone i would tip and they've taken the film every time!

Peggy Gorman wrote: What a wonderful gift!

Gintautas wrote: I love inga!

kirthika wrote: Proved a man in any position can give or help anyone. And also taught rich people who didnt help anyone

hotcocoa wrote: Wow what a change.

This is a win-win situation, you both learned from each other :)
God bless you both and thanks for sharing this nice story :)

Yogs wrote: Very nice story!

vinanth wrote: A transforming story.

Long live cabbie. A lot to learn from you.

missdre wrote: I love this.

mysteria wrote: That was a great story.

Learning From A Cabbie

Reader Comments

Add A Comment