Thank you, unknown woman, for people like you :)

“Can you hold this for a moment then, please?” the unknown lady asked me. She gave me her bankcard, her OV-chipcard (that’s the Dutch Oyster card), her wallet and a loose ten euro bill and “oh yes, my gloves!” in my hand. When I had gotten on the bus to the station, a little red light had appeared on the OV-in-chip-machine to tell me that I had run out of credit. I had to buy a one ride ticket from the busdriver: €3,80 please. Twelve kilometers later I got out at the trainstation with an OV-chipcard without credit and no bankcard on me to upgrade it. I broke it last week and was still waiting for a new one. A little calculation: I had to make four rides to get where I wanted and back, that would be four times €3,80. Eeerr… no.

“Hi, can a ask you something? It’s a little odd maybe…” The small woman had been waiting in the queue to upgrade her card and she looked at me cheerfully and surprised. “Yes, sure!” For a moment I thought that she didn’t understand that I wanted to ask her something instead of doing her a favour, but she seemed to be truly curious to find out what she could do for me. “Well, there’s no credit on my OV-chipcard anymore, I don’t have a bankcard on me and I have to make four bus rides, so I was wondering if you could upgrade my card with your bankcard if I’d give you these ten euros?” Without doubting a single second she said again: “Oh, yes, sure!” and she started rummaging in her bag. “Wait, let’s see how this all works… can you hold this for a moment then, please?” There I stood in the middle of the station, holding the valuables of this onknown women in my hands, while she was upgrading my OV-card.

Thanks very much, unknown woman, for I meet people like you once in a while. :)