40 Acts Of Chaotic Good That Turned Complete Madness Into Kindness
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The internet has a special fondness for people who do the right thing in the most unhinged way possible, a personality type often described as “chaotic good.” So when someone asked on Reddit, “Reddit, what’s the most ‘Chaotic Good’ thing you’ve ever seen?” the replies quickly filled up with stories that were equal parts hilarious, heartwarming, kind, and slightly outrageous.
From rule-breaking acts of kindness to perfectly timed chaos that somehow made everything better, these answers prove that doing good doesn’t always have to be neat or well-behaved.
Image source: Kharos, BBC
About The Great British Bake Off hosts:
When contestants do cry—out of frustration or disappointment, generally—Mel and Sue stand near them and use un-airable language so the embarrassing footage is tainted, and won't make it into the final edit.
Image source: WakaFlakkaSeagulls, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Kid I went high school with was a 2 time state champion wrestler. He was terrifying, built like a brick house by the time he was 14, by the time he was 18 he was a solid wall of muscle. He was also a vicious jerk, highly aggressive, and a big time bully.....to other bullies
This kid would beat anyone who messed with someone that couldn't defend themselves. If he saw a bigger kid bullying with a smaller kid, they were toast. Dude was the superman of my school. If anyone was giving you trouble, you went to him. He'd take care of it after school.
Image source: XvFoxbladevX, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Friend of mine named Ivan, years ago I was really poor. I was so poor that I when rent was due, I had to fast for 2 weeks until I got paid.
Anyway, my friend Ivan dropped by and asked for something to drink and I told him I had water in the fridge.
He saw that was all I had in the fridge, one gallon of water. He checked my cupboards, I thought he was looking for a cup - so I told him which cupboard the cups were in.
He just said "dude, I'll be back in 30 minutes."
30 minutes later he shows up with 10 bags of groceries. At first I was like "dude you didn't..."
He cut me off and goes "When's the last time you ate?"
I couldn't bring myself to say it and he just went "uh huh, yes I did bro."
I'll never forget that.
Image source: geopolit, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was at a market in Mozambique with a guide. Guide asks stall seller if he has any "really fresh" pangolin (illegal as hell and endangered). Seller shows him a box with two live ones. Guide turns to me and yells "run," punches the seller, grabs the box, and books it across the market toward where we had parked. He released the critters later that day. It was an interesting trip.
Image source: Axfried, nomadsoul1/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I worked in a Starbucks as a student. One day, one of our regulars came in crying as she found out her boyfriend had been cheating on her.
Our shift supervisor took out a full chocolate cake, dropped it on the counter from a height of about 2cm and said "oh no, I dropped it. Can't sell it now."
Handed her the cake, a fork and a canister of whipped cream while I made her a free drink.
He then proceeded to tell people that we were out of cake for the day.
10 years on, still remember the smile she gave us :)
Image source: leagueoflesbian, teksomolika/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I used to walk home from class at night, there’s this dude always there that would always call me “gangsta, major respect” but never anything else (for reference, I’m a nineteen year old short Hawaiian girl, and not very threatening looking). We’ll call him JD. He’d ask how my day was, if I’m getting home okay, if I had any problems getting home, etc. I began to look forward to it when I walked home from class. A couple of times I would be having a bad day and this fella, who was outside rain or shine, would always say hi to me.
One day, I was walking back and he was talking to a buddy. Said buddy looked me over and whistled, to which JD whacked him on the shoulder and said angrily “show some respect!” and smiled at me and said “you have a good night, gangsta.”
I hope he’s doing alright.
Image source: mediatormeditator, Freepik (not the actual photo)
One day my mother was sitting on a crowded tram. Beside her was "some punk with safety pins on his clothes" chewing a wad of gum. Opposite was a woman with a little girl, maybe about 8 years old.
The kid is swinging her legs like kids do and keeps kicking my mam in the shins. Mam politely asks her to stop. The kid's mother tells her that she won't tell the kid to stop because her parenting coach has said she has no right to impose rules on her kid's choices and that everybody should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want.
Tram pulls in, and the punk beside my mother takes the gum out of his mouth, reaches over, squishes it between the lady's eyebrows, winks at Mam, and leaves.
Image source: needs_more_zoidberg, KOMUnews/Flickr (not the actual photo)
When I was still in my medical training in Westwood, I often saw a middle-aged gentleman putting coins into expired meters. The one time I saw a meter maid try to approach him and he ran off giggling. A few months later I saw him at a stop sign in a Maserati. Basically the definition of chaotic good.
Image source: CarolinaFiasco, philipimage/Freepik (not the actual photo)
My mum. She’s a guerrilla gardner. She’s in her early 60’s and she goes out at night with a group of her pensioner mates and plants flowers, sows seeds and tidies neglected public land (like roundabouts and grass verges).
I’m pretty sure she knows who’s been yarn bombing round here too, but she refuses to grass them up.
Image source: everdancing, prostooleh/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was working at a coffee shop. This lady was on her phone and it was time to order. Generally I handle this by going lawful evil and asking, as loudly as possible as many applicable questions that require more than a yes/no answer as I can think of. On this particular day the tall man behind her just starts screaming "HANG THE PHONE UP AND ORDER!" then berates her publicly for being rude. It was everything I had ever wanted to say. He scared the hell out of the rude lady too.
Image source: WatchForFallenRock, Halinskyi Maksym/Freepik (not the actual photo)
My grandma was a kindergarten teacher for 50 years. Yup, you read that right. She retired at the mandatory age of 72. It was a small community, most economically ok, but some poverty. Every few years grandma would develop a case of the clumsy. She'd trip while watering the plants and wouldn't you know it but she'd spill a bit of water on the child that was unwashed and wore the same clothes for weeks. Nothing for it but to make up for her mistake by giving him a bath and clean clothes...then return the clothes she messed up after she cleaned them. A case of clumsy would last the whole school year and oddly enough she tripped near the same child every time.
The case of clumsy often meant she miscounted her grandchildren every morning and made an extra lunch. Would you mind taking it so it doesn't go to waste?
Image source: SwiggitySwoner123, Daniel Dash/Freepik (not the actual photo)
This one actually happened yesterday at work. A girl and her mom came in and got a few sandwiches, but the girl wanted a brownie. They were paying cash, but were like 3 bucks short for the brownie. The girl didn't throw a fit or anything, but was pretty sad. I was just gonna let them take it, it's just a brownie, but before I can say anything, the guy behind them says "I would like all but 5 of your brownies." Mind you, this is like 40 brownies, which costs like a 110 bucks of just brownies. He proceeds to then give the girl all of the brownies, which needed 3 bags just to carry all of them. The girl was ecstatic, and everyone else was laughing. We'll never forget you, brownie man.
Image source: SweaterZach, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Once a year, there's this old gentleman who buys out the entire Alamo Drafthouse in Kansas City, all six theatres, and makes it an admission-free day for everyone to come see the movies, to honor his late wife. He's really chill about it too, doesn't show up in person or ask for anything.
Image source: rkskr, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I remember in middle school there was a lunch lady who would ever so slightly overcook cookies or pizza or fries from the snack line so that she could say that they were not suitable to sell and then she would give them to the kids who were getting the disgusting meal because they had no money in their lunch accounts.
Image source: skooley, DC Studio/Freepik (not the actual photo)
A friend was working in the ER when she was going to school and a woman came in who had her arm broken when someone stole her purse. As that woman was being checked, a man came in who was hit by a truck after the driver saw him stealing a woman's purse and running away. Purse was returned.
Image source: BoredsohereIam, pressmaster/Freepik (not the actual photo)
We have a few (technically illegal) graffiti artists around town, who all have different tags. They also seem to have different territories, as you only see one tag in any specific area. A lot of us love their work, and they all keep it "G rated" so the city/property owners never minded.
Then, overnight, an extremly racist drawing appeared on a black business owners front windows...along with a tag from a guy we'll call J. It was quickly removed, but understandably many people became worried about the graffiti artists in general.
Over the next few days, Js entire territory was plastered with drawings from different tags. They covered every bit of his work with puppies, rainbows, cupcakes, anything considered cute. Each time he did a new one, it was covered up the next night.
Eventually he stopped trying, and his territory remains a sort of neutral zone.
Image source: OzzieBloke777, rawpixel.com/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Restaurant. Down a cook. Down two servers. Getting busy. Both cook and server doing their best. One mother from a table steps up, talks to server, and suddenly she's delivering plates to tables, taking drink orders and filling/delivering for a solid half an hour until another server rocks up for work. Hope like mad they got their meal comped.
Image source: 9gagWas2Hateful, 9GagWas2Hateful
In my country, potholes are notorious for going unchecked. A facebook group sprung up called "Adopt a pothole" and it started as just posting pics of potholes and tagging the government agency in charge (the government is responsible for damages to cars caused by potholes *that they are aware of* so they tagged them as proof). But they still weren't getting filled. And that's when it got wild. People started planting palm trees inside the potholes and posting those pictures. I can only assume it was effective. Because I saw a pic of one near my neighborhood, went and saw it to confirm and within a few days it had been filled.
Edit: Felt the need to share some of the pics from the facebook group.
God I love my country and my people
Edit2: Yes, those are banana trees. Sorry, in Spanish they are considered/classified as a palm tree.
Image source: stel27, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Definitely the French Secret Society les UX. They built an amazing, fully stocked wooden bar and movie theater in the catacombs that had been in use for some years when it was discovered by Parisian utility workers.
Later, a team of UX commandos secretly fixed an iconic broken clock in the Pantheon. From wikipedia:
"The UX (for Urban eXperiment) is an underground organization that improves hidden corners of Paris. Their works have included restoring the Pantheon clock, building a cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, underneath the Trocadéro, restoring medieval crypts, and staging plays and readings in monuments after dark. The group's membership is largely secret.".
Image source: AdequateSteve, Freepik (not the actual photo)
I sometimes call apartment complexes that I know don't offer recycling service and I pretend to be interested in an apartment. Then I ask if they have recycling and back out once they say no. I do this to the same ones from different numbers over the course of a few months so they don't get suspicious. Sometimes I have friends call too.
So far only one has added recycling, but I'm still working on the others!
Image source: JamesandtheGiantA**, New Africa/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I teach English as a foreign language to highschoolers. I have one class where the "class clown" is always trying be disruptive, but his method is to shout encouragement whenever someone answers a question. Like, "you a genius!" or "you so intelligent!" I have to act annoyed because I know he'll stop doing it if he ever knew how much I f*****g love it.
Image source: ehMove, Flowo/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I once felt bad for a little old lady waiting at a crosswalk with me. She was moving so slowly and carefully with two canes. Not sure what the story behind having two canes is but I really wanted to say something. Watching her take almost a minute to manage her canes and push the button to cross made me feel bad for her.
Now most sane people just say hello, mention the weather, something trivial. Me? I challenge her to a race across the street. I'm still not sure why I landed on that as my choice but it came to mind and... well... I just said it.
After thoroughly crushing me in said race (I was carrying groceries and totally caught off guard). She literally jumped up and down laughing at me when she got to the other side. Looking back I'm a little hurt at the deception and cannot believe her dedication to her slow, innocent old lady routine.
100% glad I did it though, she was thrilled.
Image source: anon, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
In highschool two random girls who had nothing to do with me and never spoke to me before or after that occasion came up to me. They said: "We saw M. treat you like trash and heard her talk smack about you and your family. You're coming with us now and you're gonna confront her and if she doesn't say sorry you're gonna punch her until she apologizes and promises to never mistreat you again. You can't let her do that to you but we know you won't say anything so we'll help you out with this. If we get caught, you tell them (the teachers) we forced you to do it."
Of course such a thing was against the rules, we were supposed to inform teachers about bullying and not confront others by ourselves, except the teachers didn't really care and so the bullies got away with it. This resulted in the school having a rampant bullying and violence issue.
I knew fighting was against the rules and was scared of being suspended or worse, and besides that I'd rather let someone bully me than hurt anyone. But no matter how lil ol' me tried to get out of the situation the girls would not accept no for an answer. So I was forced to go up to my bully who had been mistreating me for the past couple months and confront her, with the two girls right behind me.
They were hell-bent on not letting me or her continue with this any longer, they even said "Hey, this girl here has something to say to you" so that I had no other choice than to actually do exactly what they told me to do. Once I confronted her the girl went real quiet, apologized all nicely and never bothered me again. And that's how two strangers, who saw that I was being mistreated and didn't care about breaking the rules, taught me how to stand up for myself.
Image source: Tee_shirtNkitty_cats, Google maps
Some homeowners were sick of ppl illegally dumping trash on a corner of their street & graffitiing the area too. So as a kinda joke, they put up a Buddha in that corner in an effort to stop people from trashing the area & kinda hippy positive vibes “cure” the area of the negativity (or whatever).
Turned out the Vietnamese community appreciated the gesture so much they cleaned up the area & started making offerings & pilgrimages to the “illegally dumped” statue.
PRI did a cover on it
Image source: masheduppotato, youranedopekin/Freepik (not the actual photo)
The year is 2003 and I am visiting family in England. I had walked a mile to a game store that had a deal of two ps2 games for 60 pounds. I was excited to purchase two games for my brother that I knew he would enjoy but wouldn't buy for himself.
As swiftly as I could I took out the 100 pound note my cousin had gifted me and purchased these games, excited to run back to my cousins place so I could message my brother and tell him what I got him.
I run back and send him a message and eagerly wait for his response. He then informs me that the games wouldn't work on our US console. Unfortunately the game store had a no returns or refunds policy. My cousin told me to go there and explain the situation with the hopes that maybe something can be done.
The next day I trudge back anticipating entering a no fly zone in regards to this return. I mention it to the individual behind the counter. Now this fella was no normal fella. He had a mohawk, tats, and more piercings that I could count. He was in a different league of cool than I could ever fathom attaining.
He gives me the no returns or exchanges or refunds talk and then opens the case to the game and scratches the disc, proceeds to do the same with the other disc as well and looks me straight in the eyes and goes, "Ohhh no, looks like these were sold to you damaged... I'll refund you right away."
No wink, no smile, no smirk, no nonsense.
Brother, if you're reading this, you altered my way of thinking that day, you are a true and real bro and I admire and appreciate you beyond what my meager words can convey.
Thank you!
**edit**
To those of you correcting me about the denomination, I must have misremembered the denomination of cash my cousin gave me, I remember being given a 100 pounds, when ever I would visit them when they lived in the US, they would give me a hundred dollar bill... my apologies for getting that wrong.
In the ever famous words of that dude on the train in the movie Eurotrip, Mi Scusi!
Image source: anon, Freepik (not the actual photo)
My parents stole my neighbors dog and rehomed it because they were mistreating it.
Image source: waser78, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I was in highschool, there was one kid who was about a foot taller than everyone in the class and built like a rhino. He would beat up kids every day for no reason and would get away with it because no-one would do anything about it. One day we had a casual teacher spot him from across the school beating on some younger kids. This teacher ran at him and hit him like a train. Flipped this kid like an egg. The bully left the school a few weeks later and the teacher lost his job. But he will always be remembered as the one who saved the school. I've been out of school now for a few years and it still comes up in conversation.
Image source: voodoopoodle, Freepik (not the actual photo)
A personal one:
When my little brother was nine and I was eleven, he came home from school with a black eye. He told me who did it, some local kid who lived nearby. I knew the kid rode his bike past a park down the street every evening.
I hid in the bushes next to the sidewalk and waited. When the bully rolled by, I nat-20 leapt from the bushes and flying kicked him off his bike. I climbed on top and hit him until he cried.
The whole neighborhood knew he got beat up by a girl, and he never picked on my brother again.
Image source: theglowoflove, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
A notorious gradeschool bully ripped my Gameboy Color with Pokemon Red out of my hands and said "Gimme that." while I was headed to the back of the school bus.
In defeat, I waddled to my seat and started to cry just thinking about how I was going to explain to my Mom that my birthday gift had been stolen, but before I could let out an audible whimper, he marches back and tosses my Gameboy in my lap casually and says, "Here ya go crybaby have a look hahaha", while pocketing a Game Genie and walking away.
Through hot tears I looked at my screen and saw a brand new Pokedex entry: Mew (during the height of all the playground SS Anne/truck rumors)! I was confused and happy all at once, but just mostly glad he wasn't going to beat me.
If you're reading this Big Devin, you weren't all that bad after all.
*Edit: I a word! Sidenote: That bully grew up to be a fire captain in my hometown! Absolute unit, that guy...
Image source: avec_serif, Danumurthi Mahendra/Flickr (not the actual photo)
I knew someone who once played a extended prank on a friend where he filled up his gas tank. When the tank was low he'd steal his keys, sneak out, go to the station, fill it up, bring the car back and put the keys back. Took him months to figure out what was going on.
Image source: SkyCaptainBags, Nadtochii/Envato (not the actual photo)
I was at a party and someone wearing kilt was forcing sunscreen on everyone. He would say hi in the nicest voice and offer you one of his beers, but only if you put sunscreen on.
He was the coolest.
Image source: MrMathieus, dotshock/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was driving 130 km/h ( the legal limit here ) on a 2-lane highway, just about to overtake a small van that was right behind a truck. When at the last second the driver in the van just sways into the left lane forcing me to choose between swerving to the left a bit while braking hard or basically have a high-speed car crash straight away. So I regain control of my car and out of frustration honk once to let the guy know I was there and he just nearly k****d both of us, thinking he must have not seen me because no sane human being would do that otherwise. Wrong. Instantly the guy decides to brake-check me, while refusing to pass the truck to keep us both there while he kept braking and braking again. He eventually even passed the truck and went to the right lane to lull me into thinking he had calmed down, only to slam his van back to the left as soon as I'd nearly passed the truck and start the whole process again.
At this point I had kind of settled into my fate and accepted I'd be stuck behind this truck until the lunatic in front of me would calm down and decide to move on. All of a sudden a driver in a pretty fast Audi that had ended up behind me due to Mr. Brake-check slowing down traffic had enough of this whole mess. He overtook the truck using the emergency lane, quickly overtook the Van-man and decided to pull the mother of all brake-checks on this guy, literally forcing him off the right side of the road by instantly cutting off any route the guy could take without hitting the Audi that was now in front of him. I took this opportunity to finally pass the truck and resume my journey while in my rear-view mirror I saw a cloud of dust where the van had come to a stop somewhere beside the road, unscathed as far as I could see.
A minute later, while I was sitting behind my wheel, somewhat baffled at the events I had just witnessed, the vigilante road justice warrior in his Audi pulled up to me on the left lane, gave me a quick nod, and quickly accelerated off into the distance.
Image source: TheEmeraldArcher455, photoroyalty/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I was like 11 I was at the beach with family. I found this stuff called fart spray (exactly what it sounds like) and really wanted it, but my dad said no. My aunt decided it'd be funny to buy me it, so she bought it in secret.
We met my dad and some other family to all ride this shuttle further down the boardwalk, I couldn't hold my excitement and blabbed immediately about my new purchase. My dad took it from me and "scolded" my aunt, I sat down defeated.
Few minutes later this drunk lady and her friends get on the bus, clearly out doing a night of bar hopping. The one lady is being really loud and cussing alot, my dad asked her to tone it down and was berated with profanities. He sat quietly through it, then as the lady went to get off the bus I see him hit her with a squirt from the fart spray.
Image source: anon, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
One of my friends stole a ladder from a garage to help a kid down from a tree and then put it back.
#1
Image source: Kharos, BBC
About The Great British Bake Off hosts:
When contestants do cry—out of frustration or disappointment, generally—Mel and Sue stand near them and use un-airable language so the embarrassing footage is tainted, and won't make it into the final edit.
#2
Image source: WakaFlakkaSeagulls, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Kid I went high school with was a 2 time state champion wrestler. He was terrifying, built like a brick house by the time he was 14, by the time he was 18 he was a solid wall of muscle. He was also a vicious jerk, highly aggressive, and a big time bully.....to other bullies
This kid would beat anyone who messed with someone that couldn't defend themselves. If he saw a bigger kid bullying with a smaller kid, they were toast. Dude was the superman of my school. If anyone was giving you trouble, you went to him. He'd take care of it after school.
#3
Image source: XvFoxbladevX, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Friend of mine named Ivan, years ago I was really poor. I was so poor that I when rent was due, I had to fast for 2 weeks until I got paid.
Anyway, my friend Ivan dropped by and asked for something to drink and I told him I had water in the fridge.
He saw that was all I had in the fridge, one gallon of water. He checked my cupboards, I thought he was looking for a cup - so I told him which cupboard the cups were in.
He just said "dude, I'll be back in 30 minutes."
30 minutes later he shows up with 10 bags of groceries. At first I was like "dude you didn't..."
He cut me off and goes "When's the last time you ate?"
I couldn't bring myself to say it and he just went "uh huh, yes I did bro."
I'll never forget that.
#4
Image source: geopolit, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was at a market in Mozambique with a guide. Guide asks stall seller if he has any "really fresh" pangolin (illegal as hell and endangered). Seller shows him a box with two live ones. Guide turns to me and yells "run," punches the seller, grabs the box, and books it across the market toward where we had parked. He released the critters later that day. It was an interesting trip.
#5
Image source: Axfried, nomadsoul1/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I worked in a Starbucks as a student. One day, one of our regulars came in crying as she found out her boyfriend had been cheating on her.
Our shift supervisor took out a full chocolate cake, dropped it on the counter from a height of about 2cm and said "oh no, I dropped it. Can't sell it now."
Handed her the cake, a fork and a canister of whipped cream while I made her a free drink.
He then proceeded to tell people that we were out of cake for the day.
10 years on, still remember the smile she gave us :)
#6
Image source: leagueoflesbian, teksomolika/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I used to walk home from class at night, there’s this dude always there that would always call me “gangsta, major respect” but never anything else (for reference, I’m a nineteen year old short Hawaiian girl, and not very threatening looking). We’ll call him JD. He’d ask how my day was, if I’m getting home okay, if I had any problems getting home, etc. I began to look forward to it when I walked home from class. A couple of times I would be having a bad day and this fella, who was outside rain or shine, would always say hi to me.
One day, I was walking back and he was talking to a buddy. Said buddy looked me over and whistled, to which JD whacked him on the shoulder and said angrily “show some respect!” and smiled at me and said “you have a good night, gangsta.”
I hope he’s doing alright.
#7
Image source: mediatormeditator, Freepik (not the actual photo)
One day my mother was sitting on a crowded tram. Beside her was "some punk with safety pins on his clothes" chewing a wad of gum. Opposite was a woman with a little girl, maybe about 8 years old.
The kid is swinging her legs like kids do and keeps kicking my mam in the shins. Mam politely asks her to stop. The kid's mother tells her that she won't tell the kid to stop because her parenting coach has said she has no right to impose rules on her kid's choices and that everybody should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want.
Tram pulls in, and the punk beside my mother takes the gum out of his mouth, reaches over, squishes it between the lady's eyebrows, winks at Mam, and leaves.
#8
Image source: needs_more_zoidberg, KOMUnews/Flickr (not the actual photo)
When I was still in my medical training in Westwood, I often saw a middle-aged gentleman putting coins into expired meters. The one time I saw a meter maid try to approach him and he ran off giggling. A few months later I saw him at a stop sign in a Maserati. Basically the definition of chaotic good.
#9
Image source: CarolinaFiasco, philipimage/Freepik (not the actual photo)
My mum. She’s a guerrilla gardner. She’s in her early 60’s and she goes out at night with a group of her pensioner mates and plants flowers, sows seeds and tidies neglected public land (like roundabouts and grass verges).
I’m pretty sure she knows who’s been yarn bombing round here too, but she refuses to grass them up.
#10
Image source: everdancing, prostooleh/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was working at a coffee shop. This lady was on her phone and it was time to order. Generally I handle this by going lawful evil and asking, as loudly as possible as many applicable questions that require more than a yes/no answer as I can think of. On this particular day the tall man behind her just starts screaming "HANG THE PHONE UP AND ORDER!" then berates her publicly for being rude. It was everything I had ever wanted to say. He scared the hell out of the rude lady too.
#11
Image source: WatchForFallenRock, Halinskyi Maksym/Freepik (not the actual photo)
My grandma was a kindergarten teacher for 50 years. Yup, you read that right. She retired at the mandatory age of 72. It was a small community, most economically ok, but some poverty. Every few years grandma would develop a case of the clumsy. She'd trip while watering the plants and wouldn't you know it but she'd spill a bit of water on the child that was unwashed and wore the same clothes for weeks. Nothing for it but to make up for her mistake by giving him a bath and clean clothes...then return the clothes she messed up after she cleaned them. A case of clumsy would last the whole school year and oddly enough she tripped near the same child every time.
The case of clumsy often meant she miscounted her grandchildren every morning and made an extra lunch. Would you mind taking it so it doesn't go to waste?
#12
Image source: SwiggitySwoner123, Daniel Dash/Freepik (not the actual photo)
This one actually happened yesterday at work. A girl and her mom came in and got a few sandwiches, but the girl wanted a brownie. They were paying cash, but were like 3 bucks short for the brownie. The girl didn't throw a fit or anything, but was pretty sad. I was just gonna let them take it, it's just a brownie, but before I can say anything, the guy behind them says "I would like all but 5 of your brownies." Mind you, this is like 40 brownies, which costs like a 110 bucks of just brownies. He proceeds to then give the girl all of the brownies, which needed 3 bags just to carry all of them. The girl was ecstatic, and everyone else was laughing. We'll never forget you, brownie man.
#13
Image source: SweaterZach, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Once a year, there's this old gentleman who buys out the entire Alamo Drafthouse in Kansas City, all six theatres, and makes it an admission-free day for everyone to come see the movies, to honor his late wife. He's really chill about it too, doesn't show up in person or ask for anything.
#14
Image source: rkskr, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I remember in middle school there was a lunch lady who would ever so slightly overcook cookies or pizza or fries from the snack line so that she could say that they were not suitable to sell and then she would give them to the kids who were getting the disgusting meal because they had no money in their lunch accounts.
#15
Image source: skooley, DC Studio/Freepik (not the actual photo)
A friend was working in the ER when she was going to school and a woman came in who had her arm broken when someone stole her purse. As that woman was being checked, a man came in who was hit by a truck after the driver saw him stealing a woman's purse and running away. Purse was returned.
#16
Image source: BoredsohereIam, pressmaster/Freepik (not the actual photo)
We have a few (technically illegal) graffiti artists around town, who all have different tags. They also seem to have different territories, as you only see one tag in any specific area. A lot of us love their work, and they all keep it "G rated" so the city/property owners never minded.
Then, overnight, an extremly racist drawing appeared on a black business owners front windows...along with a tag from a guy we'll call J. It was quickly removed, but understandably many people became worried about the graffiti artists in general.
Over the next few days, Js entire territory was plastered with drawings from different tags. They covered every bit of his work with puppies, rainbows, cupcakes, anything considered cute. Each time he did a new one, it was covered up the next night.
Eventually he stopped trying, and his territory remains a sort of neutral zone.
#17
Image source: OzzieBloke777, rawpixel.com/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Restaurant. Down a cook. Down two servers. Getting busy. Both cook and server doing their best. One mother from a table steps up, talks to server, and suddenly she's delivering plates to tables, taking drink orders and filling/delivering for a solid half an hour until another server rocks up for work. Hope like mad they got their meal comped.
#18
Image source: 9gagWas2Hateful, 9GagWas2Hateful
In my country, potholes are notorious for going unchecked. A facebook group sprung up called "Adopt a pothole" and it started as just posting pics of potholes and tagging the government agency in charge (the government is responsible for damages to cars caused by potholes *that they are aware of* so they tagged them as proof). But they still weren't getting filled. And that's when it got wild. People started planting palm trees inside the potholes and posting those pictures. I can only assume it was effective. Because I saw a pic of one near my neighborhood, went and saw it to confirm and within a few days it had been filled.
Edit: Felt the need to share some of the pics from the facebook group.
God I love my country and my people
Edit2: Yes, those are banana trees. Sorry, in Spanish they are considered/classified as a palm tree.
#19
Image source: stel27, Freepik (not the actual photo)
Definitely the French Secret Society les UX. They built an amazing, fully stocked wooden bar and movie theater in the catacombs that had been in use for some years when it was discovered by Parisian utility workers.
Later, a team of UX commandos secretly fixed an iconic broken clock in the Pantheon. From wikipedia:
"The UX (for Urban eXperiment) is an underground organization that improves hidden corners of Paris. Their works have included restoring the Pantheon clock, building a cinema, complete with bar and restaurant, underneath the Trocadéro, restoring medieval crypts, and staging plays and readings in monuments after dark. The group's membership is largely secret.".
#20
Image source: AdequateSteve, Freepik (not the actual photo)
I sometimes call apartment complexes that I know don't offer recycling service and I pretend to be interested in an apartment. Then I ask if they have recycling and back out once they say no. I do this to the same ones from different numbers over the course of a few months so they don't get suspicious. Sometimes I have friends call too.
So far only one has added recycling, but I'm still working on the others!
#21
Image source: JamesandtheGiantA**, New Africa/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I teach English as a foreign language to highschoolers. I have one class where the "class clown" is always trying be disruptive, but his method is to shout encouragement whenever someone answers a question. Like, "you a genius!" or "you so intelligent!" I have to act annoyed because I know he'll stop doing it if he ever knew how much I f*****g love it.
#22
Image source: ehMove, Flowo/Freepik (not the actual photo)
I once felt bad for a little old lady waiting at a crosswalk with me. She was moving so slowly and carefully with two canes. Not sure what the story behind having two canes is but I really wanted to say something. Watching her take almost a minute to manage her canes and push the button to cross made me feel bad for her.
Now most sane people just say hello, mention the weather, something trivial. Me? I challenge her to a race across the street. I'm still not sure why I landed on that as my choice but it came to mind and... well... I just said it.
After thoroughly crushing me in said race (I was carrying groceries and totally caught off guard). She literally jumped up and down laughing at me when she got to the other side. Looking back I'm a little hurt at the deception and cannot believe her dedication to her slow, innocent old lady routine.
100% glad I did it though, she was thrilled.
#23
Image source: anon, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
In highschool two random girls who had nothing to do with me and never spoke to me before or after that occasion came up to me. They said: "We saw M. treat you like trash and heard her talk smack about you and your family. You're coming with us now and you're gonna confront her and if she doesn't say sorry you're gonna punch her until she apologizes and promises to never mistreat you again. You can't let her do that to you but we know you won't say anything so we'll help you out with this. If we get caught, you tell them (the teachers) we forced you to do it."
Of course such a thing was against the rules, we were supposed to inform teachers about bullying and not confront others by ourselves, except the teachers didn't really care and so the bullies got away with it. This resulted in the school having a rampant bullying and violence issue.
I knew fighting was against the rules and was scared of being suspended or worse, and besides that I'd rather let someone bully me than hurt anyone. But no matter how lil ol' me tried to get out of the situation the girls would not accept no for an answer. So I was forced to go up to my bully who had been mistreating me for the past couple months and confront her, with the two girls right behind me.
They were hell-bent on not letting me or her continue with this any longer, they even said "Hey, this girl here has something to say to you" so that I had no other choice than to actually do exactly what they told me to do. Once I confronted her the girl went real quiet, apologized all nicely and never bothered me again. And that's how two strangers, who saw that I was being mistreated and didn't care about breaking the rules, taught me how to stand up for myself.
#24
Image source: Tee_shirtNkitty_cats, Google maps
Some homeowners were sick of ppl illegally dumping trash on a corner of their street & graffitiing the area too. So as a kinda joke, they put up a Buddha in that corner in an effort to stop people from trashing the area & kinda hippy positive vibes “cure” the area of the negativity (or whatever).
Turned out the Vietnamese community appreciated the gesture so much they cleaned up the area & started making offerings & pilgrimages to the “illegally dumped” statue.
PRI did a cover on it
#25
Image source: masheduppotato, youranedopekin/Freepik (not the actual photo)
The year is 2003 and I am visiting family in England. I had walked a mile to a game store that had a deal of two ps2 games for 60 pounds. I was excited to purchase two games for my brother that I knew he would enjoy but wouldn't buy for himself.
As swiftly as I could I took out the 100 pound note my cousin had gifted me and purchased these games, excited to run back to my cousins place so I could message my brother and tell him what I got him.
I run back and send him a message and eagerly wait for his response. He then informs me that the games wouldn't work on our US console. Unfortunately the game store had a no returns or refunds policy. My cousin told me to go there and explain the situation with the hopes that maybe something can be done.
The next day I trudge back anticipating entering a no fly zone in regards to this return. I mention it to the individual behind the counter. Now this fella was no normal fella. He had a mohawk, tats, and more piercings that I could count. He was in a different league of cool than I could ever fathom attaining.
He gives me the no returns or exchanges or refunds talk and then opens the case to the game and scratches the disc, proceeds to do the same with the other disc as well and looks me straight in the eyes and goes, "Ohhh no, looks like these were sold to you damaged... I'll refund you right away."
No wink, no smile, no smirk, no nonsense.
Brother, if you're reading this, you altered my way of thinking that day, you are a true and real bro and I admire and appreciate you beyond what my meager words can convey.
Thank you!
**edit**
To those of you correcting me about the denomination, I must have misremembered the denomination of cash my cousin gave me, I remember being given a 100 pounds, when ever I would visit them when they lived in the US, they would give me a hundred dollar bill... my apologies for getting that wrong.
In the ever famous words of that dude on the train in the movie Eurotrip, Mi Scusi!
#26
Image source: anon, Freepik (not the actual photo)
My parents stole my neighbors dog and rehomed it because they were mistreating it.
#27
Image source: waser78, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I was in highschool, there was one kid who was about a foot taller than everyone in the class and built like a rhino. He would beat up kids every day for no reason and would get away with it because no-one would do anything about it. One day we had a casual teacher spot him from across the school beating on some younger kids. This teacher ran at him and hit him like a train. Flipped this kid like an egg. The bully left the school a few weeks later and the teacher lost his job. But he will always be remembered as the one who saved the school. I've been out of school now for a few years and it still comes up in conversation.
#28
Not something I saw, but something my brother saw. He was on a bus in London, and this elderly woman got on. There were no free seats, but this was largely because two teenagers were spreading themselves out across two seats each. This big, hulking South African guy tells them to move up and make room for her. They swear at him and give all that cocky attitude teenagers are famous for. He gets up, yanks one of them to his feet, shoves him back so that he’s sitting in one seat, and in the thickest Afrikaans accent you could possibly imagine, tells him plainly “You must be very careful who you’re rude to, hey.” They backed down after that. Image source: RedWestern#29
Image source: voodoopoodle, Freepik (not the actual photo)
A personal one:
When my little brother was nine and I was eleven, he came home from school with a black eye. He told me who did it, some local kid who lived nearby. I knew the kid rode his bike past a park down the street every evening.
I hid in the bushes next to the sidewalk and waited. When the bully rolled by, I nat-20 leapt from the bushes and flying kicked him off his bike. I climbed on top and hit him until he cried.
The whole neighborhood knew he got beat up by a girl, and he never picked on my brother again.
#30
I like putting coins in the treat machines at the local zoos goat feeding sration. It's fun to see the kids so excited and the parents pissed that they're forced to stop and let their kids feed the goats. Not super chaotic, but hey, twenty bucks goes a long way. Image source: Varmung#31
A woman was walking around our apartment complex sticking printed out MLM fliers on peoples' cars. Guy followed her about 100 yards back, collecting them up again. Image source: Trollygag#32
Image source: theglowoflove, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
A notorious gradeschool bully ripped my Gameboy Color with Pokemon Red out of my hands and said "Gimme that." while I was headed to the back of the school bus.
In defeat, I waddled to my seat and started to cry just thinking about how I was going to explain to my Mom that my birthday gift had been stolen, but before I could let out an audible whimper, he marches back and tosses my Gameboy in my lap casually and says, "Here ya go crybaby have a look hahaha", while pocketing a Game Genie and walking away.
Through hot tears I looked at my screen and saw a brand new Pokedex entry: Mew (during the height of all the playground SS Anne/truck rumors)! I was confused and happy all at once, but just mostly glad he wasn't going to beat me.
If you're reading this Big Devin, you weren't all that bad after all.
*Edit: I a word! Sidenote: That bully grew up to be a fire captain in my hometown! Absolute unit, that guy...
#33
Image source: avec_serif, Danumurthi Mahendra/Flickr (not the actual photo)
I knew someone who once played a extended prank on a friend where he filled up his gas tank. When the tank was low he'd steal his keys, sneak out, go to the station, fill it up, bring the car back and put the keys back. Took him months to figure out what was going on.
#34
Image source: SkyCaptainBags, Nadtochii/Envato (not the actual photo)
I was at a party and someone wearing kilt was forcing sunscreen on everyone. He would say hi in the nicest voice and offer you one of his beers, but only if you put sunscreen on.
He was the coolest.
#35
The time I did something like this: I worked in daycare and over the summer the kids had to bring their own lunch. One extremely undernourished and developmentally behind toddler only got things like chocolate frosting between slices of white bread for lunch. I started packing extra of my own lunch (with healthy stuff like yogurt and fresh vegetables) and sat her on my lap each lunchtime and coaxed her to eat. It was totally against the rules and probably illegal, but the lead teacher and I couldn’t just sit there and watch her literally eat frosting for lunch, so I got permission to take over myself. We just kept it quiet. Image source: boudicas_shield#36
Image source: MrMathieus, dotshock/Freepik (not the actual photo)
Was driving 130 km/h ( the legal limit here ) on a 2-lane highway, just about to overtake a small van that was right behind a truck. When at the last second the driver in the van just sways into the left lane forcing me to choose between swerving to the left a bit while braking hard or basically have a high-speed car crash straight away. So I regain control of my car and out of frustration honk once to let the guy know I was there and he just nearly k****d both of us, thinking he must have not seen me because no sane human being would do that otherwise. Wrong. Instantly the guy decides to brake-check me, while refusing to pass the truck to keep us both there while he kept braking and braking again. He eventually even passed the truck and went to the right lane to lull me into thinking he had calmed down, only to slam his van back to the left as soon as I'd nearly passed the truck and start the whole process again.
At this point I had kind of settled into my fate and accepted I'd be stuck behind this truck until the lunatic in front of me would calm down and decide to move on. All of a sudden a driver in a pretty fast Audi that had ended up behind me due to Mr. Brake-check slowing down traffic had enough of this whole mess. He overtook the truck using the emergency lane, quickly overtook the Van-man and decided to pull the mother of all brake-checks on this guy, literally forcing him off the right side of the road by instantly cutting off any route the guy could take without hitting the Audi that was now in front of him. I took this opportunity to finally pass the truck and resume my journey while in my rear-view mirror I saw a cloud of dust where the van had come to a stop somewhere beside the road, unscathed as far as I could see.
A minute later, while I was sitting behind my wheel, somewhat baffled at the events I had just witnessed, the vigilante road justice warrior in his Audi pulled up to me on the left lane, gave me a quick nod, and quickly accelerated off into the distance.
#37
Image source: TheEmeraldArcher455, photoroyalty/Freepik (not the actual photo)
When I was like 11 I was at the beach with family. I found this stuff called fart spray (exactly what it sounds like) and really wanted it, but my dad said no. My aunt decided it'd be funny to buy me it, so she bought it in secret.
We met my dad and some other family to all ride this shuttle further down the boardwalk, I couldn't hold my excitement and blabbed immediately about my new purchase. My dad took it from me and "scolded" my aunt, I sat down defeated.
Few minutes later this drunk lady and her friends get on the bus, clearly out doing a night of bar hopping. The one lady is being really loud and cussing alot, my dad asked her to tone it down and was berated with profanities. He sat quietly through it, then as the lady went to get off the bus I see him hit her with a squirt from the fart spray.
#38
Me and a friend got some black spray paint, and went to an underpass near us that had a bunch of gang tags and profanities all over it. We covered as many as we could before the cops saw us. The cop was super chill, let us finish covering everything up, but forced us to give him the spray cans we had, and brought us home. He was chill enough to drop us off a little distance away from our houses so we didn't get seen by our parents or anything. Told us we have a great mindset, but needed to apply ourselves to more legal and beneficial things. Image source: WirelessTrees#39
I was at college and walking down the street. I saw what I thought was a friend about to get in a huge fight with another group. I'm white and they were all black. I thought it was the black fraternity I was friends with getting into a fight between themselves. I ran over screaming not to fight and saying things like you're all idiots don't do this. Everyone stopped hitting and yelling at each other when I ran over. It turns out they were two different groups who were on campus for a big party in the event center. They were so confused about a white guy running over that they all got weirded out, stopped fighting, and justwalked away from each other. I didn't know any of them but I prevented a gang fight and it's one of my proudest stupid moments. Image source: CatsOnACrane#40
Image source: anon, EyeEm/Freepik (not the actual photo)
One of my friends stole a ladder from a garage to help a kid down from a tree and then put it back.DE
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