Please (Make and) Post your Kiddush Hashem or Honesty Story

[meme]

In light of all the recent negative coverage of the frum community I thought its important to make an extra effort to make a kiddush Hashem- especially in all honesty related matters.

Sharing your Kiddush Hashem or honesty story is in itself a Kiddush Hashem- and you are encouraging others to do the same.

I will start with my little story which occurred this week:

I dropped my Keurig water container and some of the parts fell off. I couldn't figure out how to reassemble the parts so I called Keurig customer service and the rep said as a courtesy they will send me a new water reservoir for free. (Cost about $30 on amazon) She asked for my shipping address and I actually cringed a little when I specified Lakewood as my town.

She said it would take 7-10 business days to arrive but I wanted a coffee now   so when I hung up the phone I tried again and was able to figure out how to snap back the parts and my Keurig was back in service!

My initial thoughts were- great! I fixed it and I will also be getting a free backup in case it breaks again! Surely a huge company such as Keurig won't care, and at the time it was really broken- so totally legit!

But then I thought again about all that's going on and remembered cringing when I mentioned 08701. I said to myself even if legally and Al Pi Halacha I'm perfectly entitled to take the free water container, I will still make an extra effort to be 1000% honest and in addition though there's only the slimmest chance I will get the same rep, maybe somehow it will get noticed and I can make a Kiddush Hashem.

I called back to cancel the free part and lo and behold I got the same rep! She said I remember you and thanked me for reporting that I had fixed it myself- and yes, she did cancel the free part shipment- but I'm still very happy I took a small step toward impeccable honesty and making a kiddush Hashem.

I hope this will be one of many stories to come.

[flyingace]

A wholesaler received a delivery which included several items he had not ordered (or paid for). He contacted his salesman who told him to keep it! He refused to keep it and sent it back- he didn't pay for it and did not want to keep it.
At the company's trade show the salesman went around introducing him as the most honest guy in the business!

[yelped]

Great idea for a thread!  BTW, I recall a similar thread, but I may be wrong. Here's one from yesterday, I was shopping in a local grocery, and noticed I didn't get charged for an item because it came up as unlisted. I went back to have them charge it. As I was loading the car I looked over the receipt and I noticed that I was charged $1 for an item that is usually about $7. I went back in again to show the cashier that I was only charged a dollar. She scanned it again. It said the price was a dollar. I said that doesn't make sense, even if it would be on sale it wouldn't be that price. The manager came over and went in the office to check the price, and he updated the system to charge the correct price of $7.69. The cashier who was non Jewish was very impressed with the honesty and thanked me for being honest. Not that this should be a big deal, but sometimes little things that should be that way anyway,  get noticed.

[meme]

Great idea for a thread!  BTW, I recall a similar thread, but I may be wrong.

I tried doing a thread search before I started this one but couldn't find a similar thread. If indeed there is another one please forgive me and this one may be a little more pertinent.


Beautiful stories so far, keep them coming!
(Hint: if you don't have one to share yet, just be a little more attentive in all matters and something will come up in no time

[sguitarist18]

Don't know if this counts, but...was on a trip to Wahington DC with a friend, and came across a wad of bills on the floor in a grocery store. $100 bills. 9 of them. I went to the counter and asked loudly if anyone had lost, or heard of someone losing a large sum of money. One women started shaking her head no, then patted her pockets and her eyes went wide in shock. She said, "Yes, I had a bunch of money here and it's gone!"

I asked her how much it was, and she thought for a minute and then said, "$900." Gave it to her, continued on my vacation.

[cmey]

 A few years back I found a cell phone lying on the curb on a block right near BMG. I turned it on and it was obvious that it was not from a local resident. By searching through the contacts I was able to call the owner who turned out to be the wife of a pastor in Howell, a therapist who had been treating a kid near BMG. She knew she had dropped the phone in that vicinity of the kids house, and she and her husband were shocked when I drove over to drop off the phone by her door. She said if she had lost the phone elsewhere there's no way anyone would have gone through the effort that a guy from Lakewood did to get it back to her...

[meme]

Don't know if this counts, but...

$100 bills. 9 of them.

SMH.

I think that's more than a prutah, so definitely should count

[beeweegee]

I went through a cash toll in NY a few years back, and got too much change back, maybe $20 or $30 extra, don't remember exactly. At the next toll, I gave it to the person in the tollbooth, and explained to her why. She said that this was the second time that month that "one of you guys" (while looking at my yarmulke) did something like this.

[flyingace]

I went through a cash toll in NY a few years back, and got too much change back, maybe $20 or $30 extra, don't remember exactly. At the next toll, I gave it to the person in the tollbooth, and explained to her why. She said that this was the second time that month that "one of you guys" (while looking at my yarmulke) did something like this.

I truly believe that we guys do things like this more often than not!

[stbaum]

A little background: I buy from a local distributor very often. They are a branch that's part of a larger corporate company (not like Walmart or anything). The guy that manages the local branch is our rep so he (or the store. I'm not sure which) gets commission every time I buy something even if he's not the one that I specifically purchased it from.
They ran a sale. 15% off an item that I needed a large quantity. I purchased about $1800 worth. The order was so big that instead of having the warehouse ship to the store and me picking it up, they delivered t straight to me. Now the way they run a sale is that they invoice full price then add a line item 'discount'. Turns out the guy messed up and gave me a similar but incorrect item which wouldn't work. He was nice enough to give me the original item I needed for the sale price even though the sale was long over. I returned the 2 huge boxes to the store and moved on.
When it came time for me to pay the bills, something didn't add up. Turns out he credited me for the original price but didn't include the 'discount'. So it's like I made like $900 for free!
It's a non Jewish company but the manager I mentioned is Jewish. I debated if I should be upfront or not. In the end I called to tell him. Turns out he was aware of the issue and he knows I'm not the only one it happened to but I'm one of only a few that called it in. He said it's a glitch in the system that corporate has to fix. He was impressed and I'm really glad I fessed up especially since he knew the whole time

[gozalim]

I don't know people here. And I'm not paskening any shailas.

I will say that I always was under the impression that the ikur chillul/kiddush Hashem is how yidden will see it, not goyim.

I also will say that returning aveidas akum is also not a simple matter from a halachic standpoint, and may be assur.

As such, someone sharing a story that he was machzir aveidas akum, and thinks he made a kiddush HaShem, may in fact be making a chillul HaShem with said story.

Either way, just to remind people, what we "feel" and what halacha requires of us, may be two extremely different things, and we should be careful to keep the goal in mind.

/soap box

go fight it out with ר שמעון בן שטח

[hvaces42]

I returned a shopping cart to the marked place even though there was someone corralling them from all over the parking lot. Hope he doesn't lose his job because of my kiddush Hashem. 

Someone smart once said, keep your good deeds to yourself and talk about the bad deeds that you've done,  so that the good stays with you and the bad goes away.

[cmey]

Quote from: YOSEF on Today at 10:06:27 PM
"I don't know people here. And I'm not paskening any shailas.

I will say that I always was under the impression that the ikur chillul/kiddush Hashem is how yidden will see it, not goyim.

I also will say that returning aveidas akum is also not a simple matter from a halachic standpoint, and may be assur.

As such, someone sharing a story that he was machzir aveidas akum, and thinks he made a kiddush HaShem, may in fact be making a chillul HaShem with said story.

Either way, just to remind people, what we "feel" and what halacha requires of us, may be two extremely different things, and we should be careful to keep the goal in mind."

Your assumptions is incorrect. For backgrounds sake I have gone through a fair amount of choshen mishpat and if you will take a look at how the story unfolded it was clear to me that there was a chiyuv hashava. See sm"a C.M. 266:3 and biur hagolah #4.

Besides, everyone knows that the biur hagolah #3 says that we should return all lost objects to Jews as well as non-Jews. Vhamevin...

[Yehuda57]

I held the door to our apt building open for my gentile neighbor. Don't worry, I made sure the door closed on the Jewish neighbor walking in behind her.

[henche]

I like where this thread is going.

I bought a dresser on Craigslist from an estate sale.  I found 300k in cash in a hidden compartment. I immediately called the seller and told them I found 100k that was their mothers.

[meme]

I found 300k in cash... I immediately called the seller and told them I found 100k

Was that supposed to be a joke?

[yelped]

I like where this thread is going.

I bought a dresser on Craigslist from an estate sale.  I found 300k in cash in a hidden compartment. I immediately called the seller and told them I found 100k that was their mothers.

What a laugh to start the week!

[ben89]

I like where this thread is going.

I bought a dresser on Craigslist from an estate sale.  I found 300k in cash in a hidden compartment. I immediately called the seller and told them I found 100k that was their mothers.

iirc with regards to that story that you are referring to, I think after the fact Reb Shmuel kamenetsky told him to be מפרסם it so he should make a kiddush hashem and otherwise it wasn't so simple that he returned it

[good sam]

iirc with regards to that story that you are referring to, I think after the fact Reb Shmuel kamenetsky told him to be מפרסם it so he should make a kiddush hashem and otherwise it wasn't so simple that he returned it

No, I'm pretty sure he asked first.

[username]

No, I'm pretty sure he asked first.

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http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/6605/The-Muroff-Moment