Waleed was a young man, though he was poor financially but was definitely rich in character. One evening, after a long & tiring job he was going back to his home, when he saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road. Without a second thought Waleed got out from his car, as he had sensed that the lady badly needed help. The lady was very tensed, standing besides her BMW, not knowing what to do. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry.
Waleed said to her, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in my car where it’s warm? Till then I will fix your car.” Being a mechanic, it didn’t take long for Waleed to fix the car. Waleed just smiled as he closed the bonnet after fixing the car. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.
Waleed never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.
The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Waleed. After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin. There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.” Under the napkin were three more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard…. She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she looked at him and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Waleed.”
Moral: Whatever good you do to others, it will be re-paid back to you some way or the other. Even if not in this world but definitely in the Hereafter.
