The Kindness Report #34: He Saw 27 People Having Lunch and Decided to Pay Their Bill

This one’s small. There’s no viral video and no million-dollar total, just a lunch bill. I still haven’t stopped thinking about it.

On October 15, a group of 27 spent the morning on a city tour in Incheon, just west of Seoul. They were residents with disabilities from the Jemulpo-gu Hanmaum Community Welfare Center, plus staff and volunteers. They walked around Cheongna Lake Park and a garden area, the kind of outing where getting out of the house is the whole point. By lunchtime everyone was in a good mood, so they stopped at a barbecue restaurant in the Seohae district.

The bill that was already paid

Partway through the meal, a restaurant employee quietly told a volunteer that a customer who’d just left had already paid for the entire thing.

The volunteer was Kim Gwan-taek, 52. The group’s bill was around 410,000 won. The stranger had also added 190,000 won of extra food, seven servings of beef tartare, for their table. The total came to 600,000 won, roughly $420.

That’s the detail I like most. He didn’t just settle the tab. He looked at a table of people enjoying themselves and thought they should have the nicer stuff too.

Who was it?

Nobody knows. The staff asked the restaurant for a name, but he was already gone and hadn’t left any contact details. All they got was the gist: he’d seen a group from a welfare facility come in and wanted to do something meaningful.

There was also a rumour that he lived in Hawaii. Then the restaurant owner told reporters that this guy actually eats there every so often, so he may be a lot closer to home than anyone thought.

The owner had already knocked something off the group’s bill. He worked out what was going on just in time to catch the stranger and hand him a bottle of wine as thanks.

What Kim said

Kim has volunteered for years, and said watching someone do this for people he had no connection to felt special. His line was that they got more than a meal. It reminded them there are still a lot of warmhearted people around. He also hopes the gratitude of all 27 of them somehow reaches the guy.

Why I picked this one

It’s a very ordinary kind of kindness, with no cause and no audience. He looked up from his own table, noticed a group having a good day, and quietly made it a bit better. He didn’t wait around to be thanked, and he didn’t post about it. The only reason we know is that a restaurant employee whispered it to a volunteer.

So if he ever reads this: 27 people are still talking about your lunch.

Missed previous Kindness Reports? Read them here: The Kindness Report

Seen something kind around you? Tell us about it. We’d love to share it in a future Kindness Report.

Sources: Good News Network | Seoul Economic Daily | SBS News | JKN