A simple act of kindness and patience can go a long way into making a moment magical. Here is my experience of “The lady, the nice man and the magic lamp”.

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The switch of my desk lamp went on strike for over a week, and I had no way of repairing it except to buy a new one.

I went to a Thrift Store – hoping to find an affordable and workable second hand one. I searched the whole store through, there was no lamp to be found. My heart sank!

I suddenly caught sight of a dust covered lamp hidden away in the corner of a shelf. When the dust was blown away, it looked tolerably decent. But the joy fizzles out upon testing it – the switch was just as dead as the one I had thrown away. The sales lady shook her head and said, “Too bad ! I’m Sorry !”. At that time, a fine robust guy with strong muscles and a kind face just happened to walk by. He looked at the lamp and said it might be possible for him to find a good switch from the barrels of junks lying around. He asked me to sit down and wait. He came back with a switch from an old broken lamp. Incredibly, it worked on testing. But he said he would need some tools to remove it and to replace it on the other lamp. The sales lady, much moved by this zealous man, said she would go upstairs to the store room to get the needed tools. After a while, she came back smiling and waved at us with an almost new lamp – an attractive beauty of a lamp ! It was flawless ! I asked timidly how much it’s going to cost me ! She looked at me and at the good man ?! Then, smiling sweetly again, she said, ” I’ll let you have it for the same price as marked on the lamp with the defective switch which was 5 dollars and fifty cents !!!

Incredible indeed ! Beyond doubt, this world of ours is good and is packed with warm kind people such as this gracious lady and this good man !

I asked and was told later that the sweet lady was the Manageress of the Store. And the good guy was an experienced hand at one of the local workshops !