Can anyone restore my faith in humanity?

I can I’ll share a story with you. A few years ago before covid I was part of the charity mind and we had our Christmas party in a pub there where some mince pies left over and I gave this homeless guy one he was in the pub drinking coke not alcohol just coke. The next time I went into the pub with friends the same guy approached me with a chocolate bar he had bought with the change people gave him as a thank you for the mince pie. A few weeks later I saw him and he had found a flat really nice guy went to the same pub in the day time for a coke to get out from the cold didn’t drink or do drugs nothing like that at all just an unlucky guy who lived on the streets luckily got a place of his own. 

Oh and it is easier and more fulfilling if the kindness is anonymous for me. If one must crow, the kind action becomes about the benefactor themselves, not the succor they've provided. The aid just becomes a McGuffin to the story of themselves. I believe in you and your deep desire to feel that authentic connection.

I am so sorry your Dad's validation of you only at that point was so colored by covert disappointment. You still showed loving kindness to another and that can be the focus, even if the person receiving the kindness never knows from whence a boon comes they benefit and the giver benefits. As long as there are beggars there will benefactors. good on ya lad! I have always seen the good in you.

Genuine opportunities to do good also tend to arrive at the worst possible times, making the choice not as easy as you'd expect.

My neighbour used to have a routine where he'd leave his house and help as many homeless people as he could with a small amount of disposable income. He also used to, without asking, mow our front grass and put our bins out. Until one day getting off the bus after his usual routine, some random stranger attacked him and put him in hospital.and he never fully recovered. He's now in a hospice, his estranged wife's kid seems to be living there, and they put out our bins still, but now I mow the frontages and do their rear lawn as well.

If you try and do good on a bigger scale the obstacles become mroe formidable, you have to really want to. ME. Like most people, am just seeking to try and add a bit of weight on the good side of htings, I don't care if anyone else knows what I did, in fact it's often easier if they don't. I'm not doing it to qualify for "eternal life" or even make the world a better place.

It's more like a choice of "style".

I'd rather be a poor man living a rich life, than a rich man liivng a poor life... 

I don't claim to be a good person, but I am aspirational to be a better person.

Doing genuinely good works, seems to actaully require a fair bit of forethought and planning and is more difficult most times than being a bad person. And almost always genrates a negative profit.. 

Here's an example from my past: It's the middle of winter and I'm 42 years old sitting in my dads van, eating a sandwich whilst helping him do a job.

I see an old guy with a plastic bag going through the bins behind the shop minding his own business but extracting vegetables from the bins, and decide that I am consoiderablly better off than he is and maybe I could share my wealth a bit as I have a twenty in my wallet. I get it out and palm it, and get out of the car and go over for a littlle chat. Yeah, he's clearly a very poor older person managing as well as he can, and claims to be harvesting the vegetables for his rabbit. I chat with him for a couple of minutes and carefully drop the twenty into his vegetable bag without him noticing, then when the moment is right finish the chat, and return to the van. 

Dear old dad is of course al over me when I get back asking why am I talking to that bloke, do I know him etc. So I tell him what I've just done. He pauses, lloks at me, and tells me that he's "never seen any good in me before that day"...  

Just the way it goes I guess.

"The poor will always be with us". 

To score a small baggie?

Caelus said:

i thought if he had to do that in the first place he likely needed money anyway if he had to lie and go to that length to scam people of money. so i didnt care.

BRAVO. 

Don't give them money, give them food. 

I was fleeced for over €300 in Easter 2009, by a pan handler who claimed she needed it for her baby. On reflection, she probably wanted to ship it to Liverpool; for an Abortion.

Lessons are ALWAYS learned the hard way. 

a ride?

There are good people out there but it's easier to see the bad people. Lately I've felt very negative regarding the world and life. It's hard at times to see the good stuff.

Yeh there sure are a lot of good people out there. It’s just a few bad apples that get most of the attention.

My dad gave a homeless man money once and at the end of the day my dad was in the parking lot getting his car and saw the homeless man get in a brand new BMW.

An arsonist set my local shop on fire when I was little and complete strangers were there helping people get out. Those people were ordinary people not trained in this and saved everyone, including my mum and little sister. That restored my faith in humanity. There are good people out there.

I would personally be reluctant to give money to a homeless person, and would rather show kindness by offering to buy them a hot drink and food, or by making a donation to a homeless charity.

There are genuinely good people in this world. I think it's just that we don't always get to hear about them.

Hmm. Good answer!

you can instead develope reality of humanity.... most of humanity lies and are grifters. those homeless people you gave money to are likely not homeless at all.

i gave money to a homeless guy, he asked more, he shook my pocket when i said i have no more, he then said i can go to a card machine. i said no. we talked he made a story of his shoes falling apart, and showed his shoes were falling apart, he claimed to be going to ymca to get some new shoes but as i walked off and he went into the shop i saw him leave the shop right away and look worried in my direction as if i might see and catch on that he faked the entire thing.

in the end i didnt care, hes likely not homeless, he lied about the entire thing and he was a thieving scammer. but i thought if he had to do that in the first place he likely needed money anyway if he had to lie and go to that length to scam people of money. so i didnt care. he likely has his own life lesson to learn and his own path down that road which he may become better or think on it and change. either way he threw away his morality and dignity while mine was upheld and fortified. it doesnt matter if hes a lying scammer the true value in the end i upheld.