Twenty-one-year-old Monet van Deventer was at a Shell gas station on the outskirts of South African city Cape Town when she realized she had left her bank cards at home.
The gas attendant, Nkosikho Mbele, had already started washing her windshield when she realized she didn’t have a way to pay.
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Monet apologized and told Nkosikho that she didn’t have her card and wouldn’t be filling up. But he noticed that her car’s fuel light was on, and rather than seeing her stranded in a notoriously bad part of town, the 28-year-old used his own card to pay for her fuel.
Why a Gas Station Employee Paid For a Woman's Gas With His Own Money
“He replied: ‘Ma'am you can't run out of petrol on the N2. I'll throw in R100 and then you can just bring back my R100 whenever you are near again,’” Monet wrote on BackaBuddy. “Without waiting for a response, he simply added the petrol and paid with his own card. Furthermore, he did not even ask my name nor telephone number. He trusted me.”
Monet returned to repay him that same day. But she was so touched that he used his day's wages to help her she wanted to share the story.
I was so shocked as it was such an amazing gesture and it made my day. I decided to make his kindness public and took to Facebook and then set up a crowdfunding page for him.
Monet van Deventer
The crowdfunding campaign raised R500,000 (eight years pay) for the gas attendant, which he says he will use to look after his two children.
How a Simple Act of Kindness Can Have a Ripple Effect
His bosses were so proud of his kindness that they matched the donations. Shell South Africa’s chairman Hloniphisizwe Mtolo thanked the hero by donating R500k to a charity of his choice and flew him to Zanzibar as a recipient at the Shell Excellence awards in 2020.
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"I know how dangerous that stretch of the N2 is that she wanted to travel and my faith in God told me it was the right thing to pay for her to travel safely so I bought her fuel for her,” Nkosikho said.
I was just happy to see her drive away knowing she would arrive where she had to get to safely and I had no idea that I would have my life so blessed in return for what I did.
Nkosikho Mbele
One small act of kindness can have a ripple effect, and that's how we change the world.
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