Paying it forward
- By Richard Branson -
- Jan 07, 2013
To kick-start the new year I wanted to share this wonderful story from Pankaj Shah, a generous guy I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.
He is fortunate enough to be able to treat people anonymously in restaurants. Whenever he is out to dinner, he asks the staff to find the couple who look most in love, and takes care of their bill.
Over the holidays he was at a restaurant in Boston for the first time in three years. The manager came over and explained how a couple he had previously paid the bill for were back in the restaurant. They had the following conversation:
Manager: That couple I chose, they’re here.
Pankaj: How would you know that?
Manager: Dude just got down on one knee and proposed.
Pankaj: Huh? What?
Manager: We went over and asked why they chose this place, and the guy said they were sitting at that same table three years ago and some stranger paid for their meal and made them think about kindness and love and they’ve been talking about it ever since. They’ve incorporated it into their lives and said there was no other place he could have proposed, it was their most impactful memory.
It was their first time back in the restaurant in three years, since that night. They invited Pankaj to their wedding.
You can see the couple in the photo above. It just goes to show how far doing a good deed can go, and what a positive impact your actions can have.
By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group
