Pay It Forward

An interesting thing happened as I got off my train stop today. I was approached by a man who asked me what part of the Bronx he was in and how he would go about going to a different part that he needed to go to. I directed him and he seemed to be satisfied with my answer. That I wasn't giving him false information. 

We go on to talk about how he's recently out of jail and asked of I've heard of a particular gang/organization and tells me the name of the leader. Now for reasons of my own I won't go into details but I acknowledged that I had heard of what he asked me about and introduced himself to me as said person. To make a long story short, he was asking me to help him out so he could visit his daughters who were living in another state. Now, normally I'm not one to "fall" for a story but my gut instinct told me to listen to him. He was not disrespectful in the least. On the contrary he was quite humble. He never exerted himself as being anything that he wasn't. He wasn't apologetic or bragging for and about who he was. He was simply just asking a family man (as himself) for a favor from the heart. Never once did he ask for any specific monetary amounts. 

Ok, like I said earlier, I'm not one to fall for a story but sometimes you need to believe in and help people. I was going to take a short cab ride from the train home. Instead I decided to give him what I would have spent on the cab and decided to wait for the bus. Why? Honestly, something in him made me want to help him. Maybe it was his tone of sincerity when talking about his children. Who knows, maybe one day (and I hope that I don't) I'll be in a similar situation asking for the same kind of help. Anything can happen. 

The only thing I asked of him was to pay it forward when he was in a position to do so. He agreed to do so as he shook my hand. Now maybe I was taken for a rube. Maybe not. Hell, I spend what I gave him on a shot and tip at a bar for something that overtime with constant drinking can kill me. So why not help someone who I felt was in need. What do you think.

FH

PS: I decided to do an Internet search on the person who he said he was as though the pictures I found were of someone obviously younger (circa mid 1990's), they looked like him. Now my curiosity is peaked.