THE $5 STORY
Upon hearing the story about the “Secret Santa” and Sukh’s idea, in spirit of this mystery philanthropist, about giving $5 to each guest of Seva (this past Saturday) when they leave and to only ask that they spend the $5 on someone else as a random act of kindness, I didn’t think of the impact that it would have on the guests.
However, I was to learn about the impacts from the first guests that left that night. Our first guest was a young couple. When they left, I thanked them for coming in and handed each of them $5 and asked them to spend the $5 on someone else. As I handed the young man the $5, he hesitantly reached out in confusion as if it to think how weird and unusual it is for someone to randomly hand him $5. That was really his only response. I don’t even believe he said anything but he definitely looked down at his hand to make sure that what he was actually witnessing was true. Yes, someone was actually putting a $5 in his hand for free to spend it on someone else. His female friend had the opposite reaction. She reacted quickly with a big smile on her face and responded with an, “Awwww.â€