Blog: A Day In The Life
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Monday, 16 November 2009
Can I Buy You Some Lunch?
This is the story of me buying lunch for a homeless guy. Before I start, I would like to point out that I'm not writing this to make myself look good, demand praise or anything selfish. I merely wanted to share the amusement I found in what happened.Today is my 21st birthday and I'm just about to go into a maths lecture. I arrived in town rather early to complete a few tasks and had time to grab some lunch so I went to Sainsbury's for some lunch. I bought a chicken & stuffing sandwich and a bottle of orange juice. As I walked out, back towards uni, I saw a guy selling the Big Issue and thought to myself, 'I ought to offer to buy that guy lunch. It would be a nice thing to do.' and I felt like doing something nice. I pondered on the idea (I've never done this before) and thought about how I would go about doing it if I did. Would he be offended? Would he refuse? Would he take advantage of my offer and ask for a week's shopping? I pondered all the way to uni, arriving at the building still with half an hour to spare. I had to go back.
On the way back, I had to decide how I was going to propose this to him. And would I buy it for him or bring him in to choose? I thought I should just buy him what I had. I thought of a few ways of saying it but when I saw him I just said what came out, 'Hi mate - can I buy you some lunch?'. He said 'A Chicken and Stuffing Sandwich, please.' like he was giving me an order at a restaurant, which I found a bit odd (and surprising as it was exactly what I was going to get him anyway) and I said 'That's just what I was thinking. And a bottle of orange juice too, does that sound ok?' to which he replied 'No, I'll have a bottle of lucozade, please.'
So I went inside, grabbed the items and paid for them. I came back outside and handed them to him. He thanked me, shook my hand and told me his name and said he would eat them later. I didn't really know what to think from his response. I guess he's used to people offering to buy him food and he knows the form. I've never done this before but I'll definitely do it again.
I'm a firm believer in keeping acts of kindness to oneself (bragging about giving money to charity, for instance, cancels out the act of giving) so I always tend to keep quiet when I give to charity, never disclose the amount given and try to stay anonymous. I think a person who gives £10 to charity and stays quiet is better than a person who gives £100 and shouts about it. As I've said I'm not writing this to big myself up and show how amazing I am for buying a guy lunch, I just found his response rather amusing.
Labels: Miscellaneous
Posted by Ben Nuttall at 12:44 
