For some, a simple act of kindness may be an impulse, but for those who are on the receiving end, it means the world.
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We all know the panic. You're attempting to pay at the checkout and your card declines, then you begin to fret about holding up those behind you.
This was how 89-year-old Joan Rayment's morning went on September 15 at a local petrol station. "It was a Wednesday morning at about 9.30am. We went down to do the petrol and put air in the tyres," she said.
"I went in to pay for the petrol with the card the Government gave us for free travel. I passed it over the counter and the attendant ran it through the machine, it wouldn't work.
"They played with the computer and told me to try again but it wouldn't work so I said I would just pay for it, it was 50 dollars. Then I heard a voice beside me say 'I'll pay for it'.
"I said 'no' to the woman and then a man spoke up and said he wanted to pay for it. The lady looked at the man and said 'we'll pay 25 dollars each' so they did."
The shock of such generosity brought her to tears: "I was so overcome with emotion to think that someone would do that for me."
"I had been telling my younger daughter the story and she told me that she had paid the balance for an elderly lady at the shop who was in front of her the other day," Mrs Rayment said.
"It just shows that what goes around comes around."
Should the two individuals who paid for Mrs Rayment's bill be reading this story, she would like to "thank them very much".
"The reason why people visit Mudgee so often is because of the people," she said.
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