The pay-it-forward restaurant: one diner sparks a chain reaction of kindness

Now that's true holiday spirit.

Here is the link to our fan page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karma-Experiment-Pay-it-Forward/113742176519 Feel free to post shares, links PIF ideas to our fan page everyone!

Here is our main group on facebook with over 1 Million People https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40566628963 share your stories under discussions and read 1000's of things people do now on a daily basis. ;)

We would love to connect and promote the Karma Kitchen chains that Pay it Forward on the east coast and the PIF chains on the west coast! Please contact Adrianne Schmidt and we would be happy to get the word out for all your amazing work around the world! :D

If you would like to hear more find us on facebook we have a group with over 1 Million People around the world Paying it Forward by practicing Random acts of Kindness everyday! ;) Come share your stories! It takes each of us to Be the Change We Wish to See in the World You, Me, We Collectively! ~ Adrianne Schmidt, co-creator and founder of Karma Experiment Pay it Forward

You've gotta love the people who take a sweet, uplifting story like this and cr*p all over it. (St. Christopher Walken) Meanwhile, I LOVE this story. I try to do something like this every Christmas season - I never know if the person I've "paid it forward" to truly did but it makes you grin hoping they did and so on, and so on! I paid for the lady behind me at the McDonald's drive-thru and told the guy at the window to tell her to pay it forward and his eyes lit up like "what a great idea!!" so maybe he also did as well! It's a cool thing, it makes you feel good and overall just gives you hope for humanity, and there's nothing selfish about putting a smile on someone's face, even if for a fleeting minute in time.

jeeze St. Christopher Walken- you are clearly an unhappy, negative person. I hate when people like you just leave nasty comments because you are so cynical. Go volunteer or something, it might make you feel a bit happier in life.

Check out www.karmatag.com - same pay it forward, but you can post online what someone has done for you, then print out coupons to give away with your good deeds. Kind of cool to read someone's reaction and know how you've touched their lives and hopefully inspire them to do the same for another stranger. Plus it's really fun to plot out your Karma "tags" especially with kids! They love it and really get into it.

Why put limitations on someone's generosity? If someone wants to pay for one person's meal or a family of six what difference does it make how much their own bill was? It's about their OWN decision of how generous they choose to be not about, for lack of better word, "fairness". In any case, I think this is an amazing idea and think all restaurants should post this in their establishments that way people have the option to participate or not.

Last week we were visiting family in Memphis. TN. Went to a catfish place out in the country. As I went pay our bill. Had my credit card in hand. The checkout lady said that they don't take credit cards, but I could take the bill home with me and mail her a check. I got cash from my husband and paid the bill, but can you imagine the honesty and trust that restaurant showed when they said to an out-of-state person, just mail me a check when you get home.

Generosity can come from a restaurant, as well as a customer.

This is a great story about human kindness. At anytime people could have chosen not to pay another's tab (or lacked $). These are good people. Thank you for sharing.

We live in an area that has a lot of Amish, they often times will send the little ones into the store for a few things and stay in the buggy. Often times you will see them staring at the candy bars and sodas in the check out line counting their pennies to see if they have enough for one. My dad, if he is behind them in line will hand them a dollar or two for the candy and they smile and laugh all the way back to buggy having hidden the candy or soda in their little jackets

I had this happen to me at a Starbucks, I was actually havinf a bad morning and the woman in the drive thru in front of me bought my coffe. Cheered me right up and compelled me to do it for the couple behind me. Not sure if they did the same thing or not but that 1 little gesture made my day.

I remember about 9 yrs ago. It was a Sunday evening and my husband had just come home from a weekend duty (he was in the AF Reserve) from Travis AFB. Since it was getting late in the evening, we decided to meet for dinner at a Thai restaurant close by our house. My husband had his fatigue uniform on and we thought nothing of it. We sat down, ordered or food and when we were done eating my husband got up to pay for our meal and he was told that our meal had already been paid for by the man sitting at a table across the room We thought it was some guy from his (regular) job whom we didnt recognize since the lighting in the restaurant was kind of dim. It was a total stranger neither of us knew and when my husband went over to thank him, the man got up, shook my husband's hand and said "Thank you for the service you do to our country". Mind you, this stranger was an older Chinese gentleman and I thought folks like him who are immigrants to this country are sort of oblivious to what's going on in our government/military but that gesture totally took me by surprise. That was the proudest moment I had being a military wife and the proudest I had of my husband.

Awesome........!

Saint Christopher Walken, everyone in the story are being generous. The first old man is the pioneer, but everyone else who pick the tab of the next table is part of the chain reaction.
It could be some people I know, that if the first old man pays for them, they would not thinking of it as "I have to pay for the next table as well!" but simply being all "Finally- someone pays for us! We're entitled to free food now and then!" and leave without picking tab for the next table.
You got it?
I hope when you or me have someone pick our tabs, we would remember this story and continue the chain of kindness instead of being all "Ohh he is generous. So what I'm not going to pick the next guy's tab. It's my lucky day, too bad I have no interest in continuing the love game." And the chain would end before it begins.

I went to a place in SF Bay Area - Karma Kitchen which used to run out of a Berkeley restaurant where you paid what you wanted to. Also you can volunteer to serve food, seat people etc. and serve the community. It is run by an Indian family. Here is the link: http://www.karmakitchen.org/

I also went to a similar place in Duesseldorf, Germany where everyone paid what they deemed correct. They also took care of the people who could not afford to pay for their meals.

aww such a cute story :D

this story made me smile out loud!! =D

http://www.karmakitchen.org/index.php?pg=about -- Karma Kitchen first opened in Berkeley on March 31st 2007, by several volunteers inspired to seed the value of a "gift economy".
Run by volunteers, our meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to the guest as a genuine gift. To complete the full circle of giving and sustain this experiment, guests make contributions in the spirit of pay-it-forward to those who will come after them. In keeping this chain going, the generosity of both guests and volunteers helps to create a future that moves from transaction to trust, from self-oriented isolation to shared commitment, and from fear of scarcity to celebration of abundance.

I meet coworkers for breakfast regularly at that restaurant and really, that is just the spirit of the place. And St. Christopher Walken, the original giver probably got more out of it than anyone else in grace and good karma, so everybody wins.

Every year around Christmas I do this at Starbucks, I pay for the person's order behind me. It started when some random person did it for me one year...I look forward to the Chrismas season every year to get to do this! Last year my co-worker and i were in the drive thru and decided we were going to do it for the person behind us, then when we pulled up to the window...the person in front of us had paid for ours! it was so ironic, but awesome :)