A few good men

I usually write about stupid people doing stupid things because that's what I see most often.  I've estimated that (other than Mrs. Bastard) there about 3 good people left in the world.

Coincidentally I met all three of them today.

In the little free time I have (after working, playing with my kids, and, um, romancing Mrs. Bastard) I enjoy building furniture.  For my latest project I needed 8 full sheets of plywood, so I headed to my local lumberyard.  When I found the wood I needed, there were exactly 8 sheets left on the pallet.  Ah ha!  Perfect!  I had just started loading one of the 35kg (77 lb) sheets into my trolley when a man approached and asked very politely if he could have one of the sheets.  I very apologetically told him that I unfortunately needed all of them.  He simply smiled and said, "Ok, I'll just ask if they have more."  Then he turned to walk away, but he hesitated and turned back around.  I was sure he was going to ask again, but instead he offered to help me put the plywood in my trolley.  I told him it wasn't necessary, but I suppose he saw me struggling and insisted on helping. 

Was he looking for money?  Was he trying to get me to change my mind and give him one?  No, he was just a kind soul offering his help to a stranger.

I thanked him profusely, paid for my wood, and huffed and puffed my nearly 300kg (660 lb) load to my car.  As I sweated my way to get the fourth of them in, I heard someone shout "Hey!  HEY!" behind me.  I turned around to see two men running towards me.  I immediately got nervous and wondered what they had planned (was I about to be mugged for plywood??) until the one who had yelled approached me, smiled, and said, "You have to be careful!  You can't do that by yourself!  You'll hurt your back!"

Despite my protests, he and his friend loaded the other 4 sheets into my car about 20 times faster than I could have done it alone.  Oh but wait, I forgot to mention the best part - one of them only had one arm.  Again, there was no request for money or anything else.  The one-armed man even took my trolley back to the front of the store, and they both disappeared inside.

After treating all the idiots that I see every day, it's nice to know that there are still a few people like this out there.