17 Times People Instantly Regretted Their Act Of Kindness

Ever go to help someone with the best of intentions, only for it to turn out horribly? These 17 people tried (and failed) in their random acts of kindness.

Before I Do Another Good Deed I’ll Just Slap Myself

My mom called me from work one day because a deaf lady got a flat tire and didn’t have AAA. My mom knew she had no money because her card got declined often so she asked me to put her spare on. I went over and it was a mini-van with the spare strapped to the underside of the car – The bolts were all seized. I had to get WD-40 from the store to get them loose. I told her that I was going to likely break the bracket under her car. She seemed OK with it. Since it was rusted out, it did indeed break. I had a hard time with everything because the car was in such disrepair. But I did get the spare on for her. She never thanked me and drove off. I did notice at this time that she had a healthy son in the seat of the car playing a handheld video game system – he was about 15 and could have helped. End of story right? Wrong. She comes to my mom’s work telling her that I caused thousands of damage to her car and she wanted me to pay half. My mom told her to get lost. She said that she would in exchange for filling up her tank with gas. My mom called me and I went over, this is where things get crazy. I refuse, so she says OK, and basically things are going to get terrible for me. She calls over 2 of her friends, I guess to intimidate me. They both were the size of Uncle Kip from Napoleon Dynamite. Anyway, they weren’t going to do anything but she breaks down and cries, she’s going to lose her son, etc. She just needs money to eat. I told her I don’t believe her and to leave. She slaps me in the face!! How can she slap?! Anyway, the police are called and they tell her to leave. She backs her van into my car causing a $700 repair. The police saw it, and said there is no point in going after her, she has no money. So I paid out of pocket because I didn’t want a claim that was $200 over my deductible on my history. I saw her once again after that at the bank, she tried to apologize, and I told her she owed me $700 – She promptly walked out. I regret helping her so much. (Source)

What They Seize Is What You Regret

I work at Walmart and I was pushing in carts. Someone came out of Walmart asking if I can help them load up a TV in their car. I walked with them to their car and helped loaded up the TV…only to find the TV box would not fit. We took the TV out of the box and the TV fit just fine in the car. (It was a 50″). Anyways, I told them I would throw the box away in our dumpsters. I put the box on a cart and wheeled it back to the store. As the car drove off, my manager and 2 security officers came running out and said to me…”good, you got the TV back”. I looked confused and then they saw the box opened. I explained what I did and they told me the TV was stolen. I just helped a criminal load up a TV that was stolen. (Source)

Don’t Trust Friendly Old Guys Just Because They Have Bread

I was standing in line at a very busy grocery store with a cart full of groceries when a friendly looking old guy walks up behind me with one loaf of bread in his hands. I turned around and said to him, ‘It’s pretty busy in here hey? You can go ahead of me if you’d like.” He gets a huge grin on his face and yells at a lady who is standing at the till next to us at the back of the line, “Anna, get your ass over here!”. There must of been $400 worth in her cart. (Source)

A Rose By Any Other Name Still Smells

I was visiting the Bryn Mawr campus with my father and sister a few years ago, even though I can’t go there since it’s all girls. We were on a tour during the fall semester, and I held a door open for this one girl who I assume went there. She immediately exploded in outrage that I would hold the door for her and that it was demeaning to women. I told her calmly that I was simply trying to be nice and that I always do that for girls/women. She just got more angry, yelling at me for being “sexist.” I then told her I was sorry, and that I didn’t realize she “wasn’t a woman.” (Source)

Cars, Carts and Karma

I just finished an 8.5 hour shift pushing shopping carts at a higher end grocery store. Someone asked me to help them back their car out, and I figure why not? I help this elderly lady back out of her spot very slowly to the point where it took about 2 minutes. As she pulled away she told me, “I knew kikes could be useful sometimes.” BUT, JUSTICE PREVAILED. Using my superpower of memorizing license plates, I memorized hers and every time I saw her car…there would be a crap-ton of carts surrounding her car. She hit them a couple times as she was backing out and dinged her door on them after I strategically placed them just far enough from the car. Suck it, b_tch. (Source)

Not Killing Him Was My Super Power

When I was about 9 years old in the 90’s, my best friend and I were very into collecting Marvel action figures. We must have owned at least 60% of all the marketed characters. Whenever we had free time, we would ride our bikes to Kmart and look at what they had. I didn’t ever have an allowance, but any money I did get usually went to feed my collection.
One week, my distant cousin came to visit us. My friend and I try to be cool and show him a good time, but something about him seems a little off. We ignore it and include him in our regular thing. We happen to be in Kmart one day that week and we see Super-Skrull! I had never seen one before, and I wanted it. My cousin wanted it too. They only had one. We hid it behind some other action figures so it wouldn’t be bought and I went home to get my money. While I’m at home, since my mom had my money and would always ask what it was for. I told her it was to get Super-Skrull and my cousin mentioned that he wanted it also. So my mom told me I should buy it for my cousin. The thought horrified me. I did it anyway. He never let me play with it and I never saw another one at any store. He moved to California after that and I never saw him again, but about a year later I talked to him on the phone. I asked if he still had it. He sounded confused for a second and then told me he had thrown it away. I know it was a coerced act of kindness, but it was still my biggest childhood regret. (Source)

My, What a Big Order You Have, Grandma delete

So I used to work at Tuesday Morning. It’s one of those discount places that buys unsold merchandise from other stores and resells it cheap. It’s like a small, crappy Marshalls or TJ Maxx or Homegoods. Anyway, one day (out of the eight or nine shifts I managed to work before ragequitting) a very nice older woman came in and bought seriously over $1000 dollars worth of stuff. I wasn’t working the register because as someone with only a few years of retail management experience I could not be trusted to adequately cope with the challenges of ringing out customers, but it took so long to ring this woman out and there was so much excited whispering that I couldn’t not notice. I didn’t see what she had, but along with all the broken toys and leaking bath products we sold some higher ticket stuff, so it’s not that hard to imagine someone managing to spend that kind of money in there. Anyway, as she’s leaving I see that she’s struggling to manage her very full cart and a lamp, so I run over and offer to help get the lamp out to her car. We’re walking out and chatting and she’s telling me that she’s very excited to have gifts for her grandchildren all picked out for the next few years. As I’m glancing at the ripped box of model plane parts that’s “going to make a great gift for my grandson in five or six years”, we get to her car, and she pops the trunk… It was just indescribable, but I’ll try. There was no place to put any of the stuff that she bought because the car (a mid-size SUV) was already full from floor to ceiling with stuff. She played it off with a little giggle at first, and the kind of “oh, I’ve been naughty” kind of self-teasing that women sometimes engage in after doing a bunch of shopping, but as I stayed and helped her try to fit the lamp and all of her other purchases in the car, the veneer started to crack. She started making comments like “I’m not sure where I’m going to put all this” and muttering about money and how this can’t go on. As we finally (somehow) managed to get everything into the car, she finally teared up and said “I’m going to have to park the car down the street until it gets dark. My husband is going to be so mad if he finds out I did this again.” I offered to let her return the stuff and she declined, so I told her to save her receipt in case she changed her mind. She tried to tip me and I thanked her and declined, and she started crying again, so I gave her a hug, because I didn’t know what else to do. I went back in and everyone else was celebrating over the big sale. Yaaaaay.
I mean, if you work at a casino or a bar everyone knows what to do with someone who clearly has an addiction. They don’t cover that sh*t in retail. (Source)

There’s Always That One Friend

I went to help my buddy get out of a pool when he reached his hand out for help, he then braced against the wall and pulled me in. Dick. (Source)

Eternal Credit Is Not a Thing

Four years ago, Freshman year, I was selling my PlayStation 2. My friend wanted one for his cousin. I offered to sell him mine, but he had no money. Well, being the idiot I am, I’m like, “That’s okay! Just pay me when you can.” …Needless to say I never got my money. (Source)

Right Place, Wrong Decade

I picked up a 61 yo woman in my car after I saw her carrying groceries down the side of the road in this heat wave. I should have known it was bad news bc it was 103 and she was carrying milk. So I take her down the street and we chat a bit. I get there, she gets out, walks to the door. No one knows who she is. She lived here 25 years ago and now I had to call the cops and deal with a whole situation of finding this woman’s family. Turns out she had dementia and thought that she still lived where I drove her. She actually lives closer to where I picked her up. (Source)

Minnie’s Bloomers All Over Again

At the airport the other day I saw an elderly lady struggling to take her bag off the bus that moves you from the plane to the terminal. So I approach the lady and pick up her bag for her. Only to not realize her bag was not closed properly. So when I picked it up all of her clothes fell out. Thus my random act of kindness ended and I ran away. (Source)

I Stayed Up All Night Planning How to Annoy You

One year on the 4th of July, my parents were hosting a big BBQ at our house for family and friends, and we were having a ton of people over. My mom was talking about having so much to do to get ready for it and having so much food to make, and she seemed really stressed out over it since we rarely have that many people over. I felt really bad for her since she seemed overwhelmed, and I offered to help out in some way but she said no, it was fine. One of the things she talked about having to do was make a ton of cupcakes the morning of the BBQ. So at midnight on the 4th, after my parents were asleep, I made a sh_tton of cupcakes. Baked multiple batches, waited for them to cool, put icing on every one of those f_ckers, and decorated them with July 4th-related things. Took me hours, and I managed to finish right before my mom woke up. I was pretty proud of myself since they turned out really nice, and I felt good that I managed to take a few hours off of my mom’s workload for that morning. Later that morning after my mom woke up, she came into my room and the first words out of her mouth were “that’s ALL you made? That’s never going to be enough! You didn’t use the right icing. We have tons of people coming and now I’m going to have to make more etc. etc.” It felt awful, I was just trying to help. I totally regretted it, especially since I could have used that time to finish up a paper. (Source)

Cost Me $60 to Learn My Neighbor’s a Jerk

My neighbor had borrowed about $60 from me total in 3 different (supposedly) emergency situations and hadn’t made any effort to repay me. By the 3rd time, I knew I was a chump, but I was still trying to be neighborly. A few weeks ago, he came over looking for more, but I was well past trusting him. He pleads with me and I tell him if he does 8 hours of yard work (that I didn’t really need) for me over the weekend, to catch up on his debts, I’d help him out. He accepts. I get him started and we put in some bricks as trim around a flowerbed. When I go to leave, he asks “to hold 10 bucks” I ask why and he says his friend wants to go out with him that night. I say no. I go inside and come out 10 minutes later and he’s gone. I guess he decided not to do it. The next day he comes over looking for the money. I tell him no, he did less than an hour of work and flat out that he’s never getting another cent from me. After I go back in, he kicks up the bricks and negates the little work we’d done. I’m like “fine, let him. I just want to be done with it.” then he calls the cops on me. Of course, they were 100% on my side, but I had to explain it all to them. He threatened me twice while they were standing there. (Source)

Beware Little Kids With Low Bowling Averages

My nephew was in grade school, and had signed up for bowling one semester. He wasn’t very good, running an average in the low-30s. (Well, I guess that was OK for the third grade, in a center that didn’t have bumpers.) One day, he comes home with one of those “charity bowling” forms. Pledge so much a pin, and whatever he bowls, that’s what you donate. I say, “put me down for a dime a pin. I can handle three bucks and change.” Little bastard rolls a buck-seventy-three! (Source)

Certainly, Sir, I Can Help You Steal That

Guy came up to my desk and said he bought a generator a few days ago and the gas cap was missing from the box. Instead of ordering one I told him I would give him the one off our display. I told him that sometimes people steal things out of boxes or return things with parts missing. He thanked me profusely and walked away. Turns out that his friend was waiting by the entrance door with the generator and they walked right out the door with it. looked at the video and yes, they had stolen it. I really felt dumb and am hesitant to do stuff like that anymore. (Source)

The Line Starts Back There, Bub

I had to go inside the McDonald’s to place my order because I had lost my voice and couldn’t use the drive-thru. They only had one employee working the registers, but that was fine because I was the only one in there. An exhausted-looking young woman walked in and stood behind me, and because I was still deciding what I wanted, I waved for her to go ahead of me. Immediately, an entire bus full of 10-year olds in baseball uniforms came pouring in and joined the woman who I’d just let cut in line. I must have stood there for 20 minutes while this woman took orders from each kid and relayed them to the McDonald’s employee. Never again. Now if I got there before you, you will wait your turn. (Source)

May I Cut/Paste the Guy at the Copy Machine?

I had written my thesis for college and between that and the 40-plus hours a week I was working, I waited until the last moment to copy and print out the dozen papers I needed. I had a 30 minute break from work, ran to the local store, and began printing the 100 plus pages I needed. A man approaches and asks me how long I’ll be-I tell him quite a bit, if you need to go ahead and print something, help yourself. Son of a b_tch if he doesn’t pull a goddamned phone-book-sized bunch of papers from his backpack and with no sense of irony, begins printing. They had to reload the printer twice. At the very end, when I was already 20 minutes late back to work and less than halfway done, he turned to me and said “I could have waited, but I was in a hurry. Thanks.” I thought my head was going to crack. (Source)