New Yorkers, perhaps unfairly, have a reputation for being unfriendly.

But one NYC resident decidedly crushed that stereotype at a Subway restaurant in California.

“Had a complete stranger buy me breakfast and give me a dozen cookies to take back to work with me to share among my co-workers,” wrote Redditor artlove89 on Tuesday. “All he said was, ‘Don’t let people tell you that us New Yorkers are all bad.’”

H/T: Huffington Post

A donut shop in Amesbury, Mass., witnessed an incredible string of customers “paying it forward” — and forward, and forward, and forward.

A total of 55 customers came through Heav’nly Donuts’ drive-thru on Saturday offering to pay the bill of the person behind them, CBS Boston affiliate WBZ reported.

The chain of generosity began after a stranger paid for Eileen Taylor’s drink on Friday. When she went back the next day committed to do the same for someone else, she started a trend.

“After that it was like, oh we’re three cars deep, four cars deep, and after about the 15th car I started letting the customers know, ‘Hey, we’re 17 cars in, you can either keep it going or you can take your coffee and go. Either way it’s your choice,’” a Heav’nly Donuts clerk told the station.

Wendy Clement, the shop’s manager, told the Christian Post that the chain eventually ended an hour and a half later -– but only because no one else was in line.

“It was fantastic,” Clement added. “The generosity was unbelievable.”

H/T msnNOW

RAK #194 – my wife and I went out to dinner, and talked a bit with our young waitress…turns out she was having a horrible day, and also damaged her parents’ car and was stressing out about how to pay for it.  Despite that, she provided excellent service, so we decided to give her a generous tip, hoping that it would make her day brighter.

RAK #193 – I stopped at the grocery store, and had a really nice conversation with the cashier.  She said that no one really talks to her, and she appreciated me taking to time to do that. Such a simple thing, but we get so busy and focused on our own lives, sometimes we forget to interact with other human beings.

RAK #192 – this week, I volunteered to make a Newsletter for a Boy Scout Troop that needed help with organization. Despite being busy, I dedicated a few hours creating and revising the item, and sent it out to the entire group, and they really appreciated it.

RAK #191 – this was an easy one; I simply listened intently to a family member, was they told me something that was important to them. At first, this may not seem like an ‘act of kindness’, but we often are so distracted by technology that we don’t really focus on the people we talk to…we check our phones, sit in front of the monitor, watch TV…and don’t really listen.

So give it a shot – turn off the TV, set down the phone, get up from the computer…and really listen to someone.

RAK #190 – this was an unusual one…at my softball game, while playing 3rd base, a runner from the opposing team collided with me during the game and proceeded to fall down and injure himself. He was upset, blaming me for the incident, as was his teammates. He limped to his dugout while his team tended to him.  After the inning was over, I went to my car and grabbed my first aid kit, and ran it over to the other team, giving them icepacks and bandages.  They were still upset, and no one said ‘thank you’, but it was still the right thing to do. And that’s all that matters.

And for the record – it wasn’t my fault. The guy was clumsy and tripped over the bag!

RAK #188 – another simple RAKNote and Candy for the guy working the counter at Sonic when we stopped for a snack. He loved it!

RAK #187 – Picked up basic trash again during our daily dog walk…much better now that I’m using gloves!

RAK #186 – we had family in town this week, and we decided to secretly pay for their hotel room after they paid. The hotel was gracious about reversing the charges, and we hoped that it would make life a little easier for them.