This made my day: MRT station staff gives own money to lost jogger for ride home

With no money, no phone and not a clue where to go, things seemed rather dire for Mandy Chan, a jogger who lost her way, until she met her benefactor at Fort Canning MRT station.

Hearing about her situation, a station staff took out $2 from his own wallet and handed it over to her so she could buy a train ticket home.

Touched by the unexpected act of kindness, Chan took to Facebook on Sunday (May 31), titling the experience as "$2 of Humanity".

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In her post, she recounted how she had decided to go on a run earlier that morning, hoping to shed off a "crazy feast" she had the night before.

Having participated in the Standard Chartered Marathon last year, she opted to take that route despite only using it once before. 4km later, she found herself lost.

Chan, who described herself as the kind of person who "used Google Maps to navigate around school for the first three months during university," walked around in circles for about another kilometre before approaching a stranger for directions.

 

However, their "go straight and when you see the main road, turn right" didn't help as she found herself back in the same spot.

By that time, two hours had passed and Chan was growing increasingly desperate.

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Fortunately for her, she eventually the way to an MRT station and approached station staff there for help.

While the jogger had hoped that she was close enough to home that he could point the way for her, it turned out that she was six stations and two train changes away. The staff then flipped through a binder full of notes which allegedly contained a list of train fares before taking money out from his waller and handing it to her.

 

Despite her attempts at rejecting his offer, the staff waved her off to buy a ticket, saying: "It's okay, Hari Raya la."

At his insistence, Chan accepted the help but promised to return the money to him another day.

After she wrote about the kind gesture on Facebook, other netizens chimed in support and praise for the station staff, some of whom shared similar experiences whereby they were offered free rides to get to their destination. One netizen even encountered a taxi driver who offered to waive his cab fare.

rainercheung@asiaone.com