An Unexpected Kindness

I had just gotten off the bus, returning to Suzhou after a week long trip in a small town. I was outside the bus station, tired, carrying a heavy backpack, getting a migraine, and a bit frustrated with my last week. I just wanted to go home - to get back to my apartment, unpack, and relax. The only problem was that finding a taxi seemed to prove to be an impossible task. I tried to flag down the "real" taxis - the metered ones - but they just waved at me and continued driving down the road. Well, that really helped me get home. It reminded me of having a lemonade stand when I was younger. My friends and I would call out to people walking or driving by and they would wave to us - their waves did not help us raise the money we wanted; all they did was give us a few seconds of false hope.

The "fake" taxis, as I thought of them, the ones who were un-metered, in normal looking cars, and who tried to give you ridiculously high prices (such as 80 kuai when it should be 13 kuai) were parked along the street everywhere. The "fake" taxi drivers followed me and asked me in broken English, "Where you want to go?" I could not get away from them. I started to lose hope of ever finding a taxi. I walked a bit, looking for a real taxi that would take me home, but all I found were fake taxi drivers who bothered me, yelling out, "You go where?" I hurried on, ignoring them as much as I could.

A young man started to walk beside me then and the other people stopped bothering me. He had the look of a fake taxi driver, so I ignored him as I did with the others. "Can I help you?" He asked me. Still believing that he was trying to get me into his fake taxi and cheat me out of money (obviously I learned to be very distrustful), I answered shortly, bluntly, "No." Although I am not usually a rude person, this time I meant to be rude so that he would get the idea and leave me alone to look for a taxi. "Where do you want to go?" He tried again. He was still walking beside me. He just wouldn't leave me alone. I gave him the street name and he said, "Oh, you take bus 83 to go there". Surprised, I looked at him. Obviously, he wasn't trying to get me into a taxi if he was suggesting a bus. I explained in Chinese that I wanted to take a taxi (I was in no mood to lug my backpack on an overcrowded bus). In Chinese he answered, "You can't find a good taxi here. You have to walk up the road". Yeah, I figured that much, but now I knew for sure. He walked with me for a while, but I was still distrustful. I kept my purse close to me, watching his hands and my purse carefully. After all, I had just come back from travelling; I had money, my passport, my MP3 player, many things that he might want to steal and that I would not want stolen. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but then again, Little Red Riding Hood didn't know that her grandmother was really the wolf - you can't always tell when people have bad intentions.

He led me up the road away from the bus station, and as we walked it became more and more deserted. Of course, we were in China, there were still people - there are always people. But fewer, which made me nervous. I stopped and started looking for a taxi. He understood my intentions and tried to hail a taxi for me. Then he crossed the street (where there were no people), saying that it would be easier to find a taxi on that side. I followed him nervously (maybe I was being paranoid, I don't know). While we looked for a taxi, we engaged in some small talk, he asked me questions, I answered. As I said, he seemed genuinely kind. But is it smart to trust everybody? When a taxi drove up, he hailed it, opened the door for me, and told the taxi driver where I wanted to go. And that was that. I gave him a warm thank-you. After all of my concerns, there had been no reason to be so suspicious.

All he had wanted to do was help me. A complete stranger had spent 20 minutes walking with me, talking with me, and helping me to find a taxi (and making the fake taxi drivers leave me alone). I felt very grateful to him for being so kind to me. He wanted nothing in return. He was just doing a good deed, just being kind to a stranger. So, everybody who reads this should remember this and do the same - be kind to strangers - do good deeds - and the people will be grateful. Maybe someone is frustrated, sad, or not in a good mood. Maybe your assistance and kindness will brighten their day. Be a good person! Go up to a stranger and commit an unexpected act of kindness.