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Kind things to do for a stranger
For someone you will probably never see again, or will see constantly and never know. No history to draw on, which makes these the most nerve-wracking and often the most memorable.
Showing 31–60 of 106 ideas
Pay a bit more at the place that employs people
The difference between the independent and the chain is usually small per item and decisive per year.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Add alt text to your images
An image without a description is a blank space to anyone using a screen reader. Writing one takes twenty seconds.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Correct your own mistake where you made it
Misinformation spreads further than corrections. Correcting yourself in the original place is the only version that works.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Find out who quietly fixed the thing
Something broke, then it didn't. Somebody did that, usually out of hours, and nobody has said anything to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Let the car out
Someone has been waiting at that junction for four minutes. It costs you eight seconds and they remember it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Hand in the thing you found, properly
A dropped wallet or phone handed to the right place is the difference between a bad afternoon and a ruined month.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Answer the question that has been sitting unanswered
Someone asked in a channel two days ago and nobody replied. The silence is worse than a no.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Write down the thing only you know
Every job has undocumented knowledge living in one head. Writing it down is a gift to a person you will never meet.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Reply to the post with nothing under it
Posting something you made and getting silence is worse than not posting. One reply changes the whole experience.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Visit the resident nobody comes for
Every care home has people who receive no visitors at all. Staff know exactly who they are.
OngoingFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Buy the last of it at the end of market day
Unsold fresh produce at four o'clock is a loss the trader eats. Buying it is a favor disguised as a bargain.
Half an hourUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Review the tradesperson who did it properly
For a small trade, online reviews are most of the marketing budget. One honest paragraph is worth real money to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take back two trolleys instead of one
Collecting trolleys in the rain is somebody's whole shift. Two at a time halves a specific, miserable job.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Fix the wrong thing on the map
Wrong opening hours send someone across town for nothing. Anyone can correct them and almost nobody does.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Learn the name of whoever cleans your office
They are in the building every day and structurally invisible, often working before anyone arrives or after everyone leaves.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Stand up before anyone has to ask
Asking for a seat means announcing a pregnancy, an illness or a disability to a carriage of strangers.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Stand next to someone being harassed
Intervening directly can escalate. Standing beside the person and talking to them usually does not.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Pick up what fell out of someone's bag
Gloves, cards, a child's toy. The owner will not discover the loss until it is far too late to retrace.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Hold the lift for whoever is carrying something
Cleaners, porters and delivery staff with loaded trolleys wait for lifts far longer than anyone with free hands.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Give a visitor the real recommendation
Tourists get sent to the thing on the map. Locals know the version two streets away that is better and cheaper.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take the appointment nobody wants
The 8am slot, the Friday afternoon, the awkward gap. Someone has to take them, and flexibility is a thing you can give away.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Step aside early on a narrow pavement
Whoever moves first is usually whoever is least able to. Deciding to be the one who moves is free.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Review the small place that is not struggling yet
People review businesses when they are closing or failing. The useful time is before that.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Go back in and say the food was good
Kitchen staff never meet the people who ate what they made. The feedback loop is completely severed.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Write the delivery note before they arrive
Most failed deliveries are a driver guessing. Three sentences of instruction saves a doorstep conversation and a wasted trip.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Warn the parent who has not seen it
A toddler heading for a road or a pond. The parent is two seconds behind and has not looked up.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take the other end of the pushchair
Stations without lifts turn a pushchair into a trap. One person taking the front end solves it in twenty seconds.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Answer the most junior person first
Inboxes are triaged by seniority without anyone deciding to. Reversing it once a day costs you nothing.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Hand back what the machine gave you by mistake
Money left in a cash machine or an overpaid change is someone's actual money, and they will notice.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Decline to join the pile-on
The hundredth reply telling someone they are wrong adds nothing except to the total weight landing on one person.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet