The good deed for the day

I got off the S-train this morning together with another woman who was sort of the mother-in-law type, definately the sort of law-and-order demeanor that is often to be found in Germany. She looked like someone who would tell people off for crossing on a red light and so.

There was a young man digging in his wallet for change for the ticket machine. She walked up to him, gave him her ticket, and said "Here you go, use this!". Train tickets are good for 2 hours, in one direction only, but this is usually not checked.

His face brightened up considerably, as he took the ticket, had the machine return the change he had already given it, and dashed to make it into the train before the doors closed.

I overtook her and then stopped to look at the socks in a stall outside the train station, just to get another glimpse of her - did she have a Che T-Shirt? Green party sticker? Anarchist earrings? Nothing. Not even smug about beating the BVG out of 2,10 €. She was just going on about her business after doing her good deed for the day.