Kind-hearted stranger picks up grieving family’s tab

Reddit user Whiskkas, a waiter in Boston, recently posted a photo of a note from one of his customers.

"While [I was] waiting tables tonight, a mother and daughter started crying mid-meal. I had no idea what happened until a single guy at the table next to them handed me this note with his bill. Faith in humanity, restored," Whiskkas wrote.

The customer's note gently explained why the daughter was crying: she took a phone call mid-meal — and was given an unspecified medical diagnosis.

"Do me a favour and bring me their check too," the mystery diner's note read. "Someone just got diagnosed. Don't tell them."

Whiskkas told the women that their bill had been covered.

"I waited until the guy left and told them he had taken care of their check, and that he said best wishes, which was what he said to do on the note he wrote me on his second bill. Mother cried even harder, I almost lost it," Whiskkas wrote.

[ Related: Coffee drinkers fail pay it forward kindness test ]

In response to the story, Redditor MrJoeMoose shared that a stranger once covered his family's bill, something he'll never forget.

He and his family were eating at Applebee's, getting ready to say goodbye to his father who had been deployed to Iraq.

"That night a stranger picked up our check. I'm sure they don't even think about it any more, but it sticks in my mind. That gesture of respect and comfort meant the world to our family. I guess my point is that I want to say thanks to my stranger, and to the stranger who paid this bill," he wrote.

Have you ever paid for a stranger's meal? Or has a stranger ever covered your tab?