You can often hear people say: “Kindness begets kindness.” It doesn’t have to happen right away, but it’ll always be so eventually. And even though there are people who don’t believe this premise to be true, there are still many stories that need to be shared. Many of them rightfully deserve to be heard by as many people as possible.
It all started on Christmas Eve, on a cold January evening in 2005. A guy named Correll started his old Zhiguli car and earned a little extra money working as a private cabbie. While the bulk of the city’s residents was celebrating Christmas with their families at a festive table. Correll, unfortunately, had to use this opportunity to earn some extra cash.
At the time of the events described in the story, the young man was an ordinary student who had been forced to transfer to the part-time Department because of his mother’s illness. She required care and attention. As fate would have it, Correll had never known his father, and therefore his mother was his only immediate family. The young man was also very proud of his used-car, which he had inherited from his grandfather. His grandfather had purchased it years ago after decades of hard labor.
The old man had been taking great care of the old Zhiguli up until his death, and now this old car was helping the sophomore earn a living. He tried hard to earn money for his mother’s medications and other expenses. Sure, many of you might say that this relic of the past should have been sent to the scrap-heap a long time ago, but Correll didn’t think so. As he picked-up two guys who were stranded outside in a Blizzard at a busy bus stop, he reassured himself yet again that his old Zhiguli could still do the job. The passenger’s destinations turned out to be on the other side of the city.
They also said that due to the heavy snowfall, all taxi-services were busy, so finding a car turned out to be an unrealistic task. The guys were well dressed and judging by their appearance, the young man immediately realized that they were well off. During the trip, the young men asked to turn on the music. Although Correll considered himself a music fan, the passenger’s knowledge in this field impressed him very much. There seemed to be no song or artist that the guys didn’t know.
Overall, everything was as usual, and it seemed that nothing could go wrong. Talking quite animatedly, the young people did not expect a descent and an icy section of the road ahead of them. For some reason, it wasn’t treated with salt or sand. Correll noticed the danger too late. He lacked experience, so he immediately pushed on the brakes.
The car began to skid to the left, and the only reason they managed to avoid a serious accident was the absence of oncoming-traffic. Fortunately, the car didn’t slide for long and it was thanks to this fact that our story even has a continuation. The young man was very fortunate and his Zhiguli stopped as though it was rooted to the spot, its front buried in a snowdrift on the side of the road. Exhaling with relief, the passengers got out of the car, and one of the guys, seeing the poor condition of the winter tires, shook his head with disapproval. It is worth saying that Correll noticed the man’s disappointment and lowered his eyes shamefully, preparing to listen to some well-deserved criticism.
He was ashamed to admit to his passengers that he simply didn’t have the money to buy a new set of tires.
Corell was trying to come to terms with the idea that he obviously wouldn’t get paid. But then something incredible happened. Much to his surprise, one of the passengers took a few bills out of his pocket and put them into the unfortunate student’s pocket, after which the guys even helped Correll start his car and said a friendly goodbye. The strangers set-off to their destination on foot since they were almost-there already.
It was only 20-minutes later that Correll discovered that the passengers had given him 20-times more than the expected fare. There were as many as 5000 Rubles in his pocket. Back in 2005, It was a lot of money, and the guy remembered this day for the rest of his life.
It should also be noted that the grateful student was so overwhelmed by the feeling of gratitude to the kind strangers, that he was very disappointed when he realized that he didn’t even ask for their names and didn’t know how to thank them. Correll could never forget what happened that night and told the story many times, even to his future wife and children.
That evening, Correll learned what a selfless good deed looked like. He didn’t just use this money to get new tires, but he even managed to save up a little. This story could’ve ended there, but it received an unexpected continuation 15-years-later, when the owner of a small store downtown saw two street musicians playing the guitar right in front of his shop. There was an open guitar case nearby for donations. Something in the faces of the musicians seemed familiar to the man, and looking more closely, he began to get some ideas in his head.
As you probably understood, the owner of the store was correll. He managed to graduate with honors from the university and start his own business, and he now had a family. And even though he was now driving an expensive SUV, he still often thought about that fateful day. It remains a mystery how the successful businessman recognized the musicians as his two-passengers from back in 2005, but instead of asking them to leave, he decided to talk to them. It turned out later that the men also remembered that evening in the Zhiguli that got stuck in the snow.
Remembering the situation that night, the three-men laughed happily. Of course, Correll immediately got his wallet and took out all the contents. It was quite a lot of money, but there was more to the story. From their conversation, Correll learned that the two-musicians were brothers.
In the 2000s, They owned a recording studio and things were going well for them. However, for various reasons, their business failed and now they were broke. Having to take-on odd-jobs, giving concerts in nightclubs, restaurants, and in the open air. Having learned that the guys were having a lot of bad fortune, Correll offered the street-musicians his help. He soon installed a small portable stage near the store for the musician-brothers to use and have small concerts there.
Moreover, Correll officially employed them in the store and even set them up with an official salary. And still, this isn’t all. A month later, Correll helped them open a new recording-studio, since he had some space for it, and the guys had the equipment. Thus, they became partners. And later on, they became true-friends and their families, too.
The author of the Post named Correll wrote on social media: “I am very grateful that life has brought me together with these people. Exactly 15-years-ago, they gave me a huge amount of money just to help-out a poor student they didn’t even know, and they didn’t expect anything in return. 15-years-later, I was able to pay them back. I’m very grateful to them for everything, and I’m grateful to life for the fact that things like these can happen.”
All we can add in-conclusion is that our lives resemble a Zebra. Where dark-stripes of misfortune are replaced by white-stripes of incredible fortune. At the same time, one should never forget that being at the top one day, you could still easily fall to the very bottom the next day. It’s important to stay a good person, both during the up-times and the downs.
What do you think about this story? Do you believe what goes around comes around? Or do you think it was just a coincidence? Be sure to share your thoughts with us in the comments.