My friend Mary was in a checkout line at her neighborhood grocery store. In front of her was an elderly woman who looked frail and was hunched over. When it came time for this woman to pay her bill, she didn’t have enough money. Without hesitation, the checker, who was a young man in his late teens, reached for his wallet, made up the difference, and told the woman to have a nice day. Mary was very impressed with the young man’s kind act and she told him so in a very complimentary manner. She then found the checker’s boss and informed him of the kind act. The boss said that he would nominate this checker for “employee of the month.” When she got home, Mary called the corporate headquarters of this grocery store chain, located the appropriate manager, gave her the young checker’s name, and told her about his kind act. This manager told Mary that she very much appreciated her call and would personally call this young man to thank him for having gone the extra mile on behalf of the store and its customers. The lesson here is that if you want to see kind acts repeated, it helps if you reinforce them. You can bet that when this checker is confronted with another opportunity to be kind, he will seize it without hesitation. Good job Mary!

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