A generous customer has paid $1,000 to cover the bill for diners behind him at the drive-thru lanes of a West Texas Chick-fil-A restaurant in Abilene.
According to KRBC, the NBC affiliate, the man drove up to the drive-thru window at around 7 p.m. on Monday, ordered his food, and said that he wanted to pay for everyone behind him and handed over ten $100 bills.
He told Chick-fil-A employees that his name is John, and he just wanted to make everyone's Monday better as it is often tough for people to start out the week.
"Here is ten $100 bills and I would like to pay everybody else in the line," Brian LaCrois, the franchise owner said, according to KRBC. "For the next hour, he bought everyone's meal."
The team leader Duste Wolf said she was stunned when an employee asked her what to do.
"I asked him, did you win the lottery today?!" Wolf said, according to KRBC. "He said Mondays are tough and wanted everyone to have a good day."
LaCrois said among the beneficiaries of this act of generosity, many customers were puzzled and shocked, and a Lady even started crying after hearing about the story.
"It reminds you how important it is to think of others," Barry Taylor, a customer said, according to KRBC. "Putting a joy in other people's lives unexpectedly is a real blessing."
The restaurant ended up giving the man a free meal, and he ended up ordering 8 piece chicken nugget with a Dr. Pepper.
On Tuesday, Chick-Fil-A posted a message on their Facebook page asking customers who received the benefit to share their experience.
Chick-Fil-A was founded by the late billionarie S. Truett Cathy, who passed away earlier this month. As a deouvt Christian, he used a significant portion of the company's revenue for positive causes.
"I'd like to be remembered as one who kept my priorities in the right order. We live in a changing world, but we need to be reminded that the important things have not changed," said Cathy, according to company statement.
"I have always encouraged my restaurant operators and team members to give back to the local community. We should be about more than just selling chicken, we should be a part of our customers' lives and the communities in which we serve."
While this generous act was from a customer and not an employee, Truett's call for generosity and the spirit of giving back is nevertheless reflected by this man's one act of kindness that benefitted close to a hundred people, if not more.
Our savior Jesus Christ has shown the world the greatest act of self-less giving through laying down his life on the cross, just as it is written in Romans 5:19, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."
