A Random Act of Kindness

Describe the situation of a random act of kindness that you have seen or done. What happened? Why do you think the person (or you) did what he/she (or you) did? What was the motivation?

• During my trip to Singapore just last week, on Friday, November 23, I did a very random act of kindness. I was walking on Orchard Road, one of the main streets in Singapore, with my classmate, Vivien. The two of us had went shopping and were very hyper and excited (though we didn't buy anything, I must add). On our way back to our hotel, we were suddenly stopped by two young males who were holding a clipboard and several works of art. One of them stepped forward to us and immediately started talking about how they were gathering money for the those who had lost their hands. He described to us that those people are now working hard and creating art works through other means, and showed us a few of the sample works. Because of their accent, Vivien and I didn't understood them very well. When the two young males learned that we spoke Chinese, they started to communicate with us using Chinese. I guess I was too caught up by the fact that we were in Singapore, that we just had a great time shopping, and that I still had some extra money to spare; I agreed to donate money for these people without thinking much about it. Vivien was reluctant at first, since she was low on cash, but in the end, she relented. We both donated 10 SGD. After we did the act of kindness and the two males had left, I realized that I regretted it. I had no idea whether they were really going to give the money to those who need it, or if they were just people cheating money from oblivious tourists. The act was just to make me feel good, but I realized it was not worth it. I feel sorry for making Vivien donate with me when she didn't have that much money to spare.