Not in! +1! :)

I was on my way home one evening and there was this Italian lady with her travel bags at the bus stop. She was lost and wanted to get to her hostel, but the trouble was, I didn't speak Italian and she could speak neither German, Russian nor English. Anyway, she got out her map and a hostel brochure, and through the universal language of pointing and gesturing we established that I'd help her get there. It was pretty much at the opposite side of where I was living and it took us over an hour to get there -- it was winter and she was an older lady, so the going was quite slow -- but get there we did. Even helped her carry her bag.

I don't know whether there's anything philosophical about it to take away. I don't even consider it particularly altruistic, but I've been in shitty situations with no one helping and it was a nice way of getting even with the universe. Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you, as Sartre would say and it's your actions that define you.

The other thing that you could perhaps take away from it is that actions speak louder than words. There were other people at the bus stop who were talking about her (which clued me in that she was lost in the first place), and I got the impression she had been standing there for a while, but none of them offered to help.

Oh, and I'm in.

I'm in for 011284mm.

Once I was walking down a street late at night and saw smoke coming from this house. I thought, maybe it's smoke from a fire (better safe than sorry)so I knocked on that house's door and told the man who opened the door, there is smoke coming from his house. He told me, it's from his dryer or something like that. I didn't really help anyone but I know, some people would of just kept on walking.

Great giveaway, I'm in.
As for a story about helping people in need, I don't have anything heroic to share. I can only share some common stories, although at the time I felt good inside:

1) As I was walking down the street, returning from the university, I saw a woman pushing a baby stroller. She was crossing the road and she was trying to get the baby stroller on the pavement but the pavement was a bit high. So I crossed the road, got over there and helped her get the baby stroller on the pavement.
2) The second story was about a pregnant woman in the metro. At that moment the train was full, every seat was taken, and a pregnant woman entered the train. I realized that nobody was willing to give his/her seat the pregnant woman so I got up and offered my seat to her.

Thanks for the giveaway! +1

Alright, it seems time is up now and it's time to decide. First off, thanks to all the contributions, great of you to share your personal stories!

I'll post here as soon as I made a decision and have replies to everybody, thanks in advance for waiting.

Being a good Samaritan is simply being a good person and doing the right thing, so I don't really keep track of these things in my mind -- it's just who I am. The only thing I can think of offhand is about a little old woman in our town; Jeanine. She has no car, and ambles about town on her walker. She will frequently go to a charitable organization in town -- about a mile from her house -- and buy things she can't possibly carry. Any time my husband or I sees her, we always stop to give her a ride, as well as transport her goods (sometimes furniture!)

No big deal, and certainly not worthy of this contest ;p Still, my act of good Samaritanism comes now: This game is on my wishlist, but if I were to win the code, I'd like it to go to Urnoev. Why? The reasons are twofold: First, I won a game yesterday, and I know I won't have time to play The Samaritan Paradox any time soon because I'll be working on Memoria! Second, and most importantly, Urnoev seems to want the game more than anyone else who's posted!

EDIT: Whoops! Didn't realize that the GA had already ended! Good luck to you, Urnoev!

I try to not interact with people as much as possible but when i see a person in need of something little, like holding a door for them or stuff like that, i usually do that although it's somewhat automatic, i don't really think it qualifies for a "samaritan deed". I don't remember doing anything major like changing a dude's tire so here's some things i do remember from recent days.

A dude dropped a coin on a tram and i picked it up and handed it to him, the coin was of 10cents value.
A neighbor needed a walker for elderly people so i picked it up and carried it to her place upstairs from our place and like a month or two later i picked it up from her place and took it back because her walking got better again.
A dude was getting on a bus with a baby stroller, a baby, and some bags and a backpack. The backpack fell down in the getting on process and so i picked it up, hopped on and walked to the dude on the bus. Being a "talkative" person i stood by the baby stroller until the dude turned and then it took like 5 seconds of him looking at me like "what? do you want something?" and then i pointed to the backpack in my hand and told him he dropped it and i handed it to him.
And various similar things.

As i said, no major good deeds, only the stuff people automatically do.

After class, my lab partner and I were walking to dinner on campus. Some distance away, I saw an unusual balancing act. A girl I didn't know was pushing her bicycle with one hand. Her other hand was trying to keep a medium-sized television perched on the bike seat as she walked. I only watched for a few seconds before it was obvious this would soon end in disaster. I said goodbye to my partner, and ran off to carry the television. She came to walk along with me all the same.

Not in, thanks, as I've already been well-rewarded. My lab partner is now my wife.

Please note: Somewhat lengthy wall of text ahead, will have to edit this several times to fit in all the replies….check back in a couple minutes!
Use CTRL+F to search for where your name is mentioned to find my replies to your posts. Took me a awhile to arrive at a decision and reply to all so thanks for waiting!

First off, thanks everybody for generously sharing stories from your personal life.
It’s not easy to pick one person as a winner with all these great stories. What should I even base my decision on? The biggest sacrifice, the most difficult to achieve mission, the funniest incident? Many things to consider. Let’s go take a look at all the contributions: Urnoev: You are a guardian angel to the poor by giving them food instead of just ignoring them like most of us or ‘keeping them at bay’ with small change. Food is better than money because while not all the beggars in social welfare nations have a drug problem, many certainly do. You are doing a responsible thing, it’s certainly more than I ever do. I only help out when they approach me in a friendly and polite manner and even then I only offer to share food if I happen to already carry some with me. Interestingly, they always turn down the healthy stuff with vitamins like strawberries etc and ask for white bread or some such instead. The unfortunate fact that those who have it the hardest are the most quiet and those who just angrily despise ‘society’ and are rude to passerbies are the most in your face makes it hard to maintain a positive attitude towards beggars in general, so people like you truly earn my respect. jdsiege: You shall henceforth be known as The Tireless Protector of the Tireless, pun intended. This story impresses me on more than just a human level and here’s why: while other people might dream about single-handedly saving a school from the clutches of evil terrorists, your example of handy heroics is already more than I could imagine in my dreams because as I mentioned earlier on, I have no car repair or general handyman skills whatsoever. I can’t even identify free parking spaces when driving somewhere with friends so I’m quite useless in that department. Many times have I been in a situation where I wanted to help but didn’t have the necessary skills. It’s particularly impressive that you took things a step further by making sure the guy gets home safely. You fixed the problem and followed through to ensure a happy end, meaning you didn’t just help to appease your own ‘witness guilt’ but had the welfare of your fellow human in mind. This might not be on TV but it’s heroics in my book. DjDarko: From your two contributions, I’ll go with the DVD story (can only use one story for fairness sake): I felt this was the most heartwarming of all the stories, not just because I have a weak spot for the Elderly and Alien/Predator but because you acted as a Christmas elf/gift ninja and went out of your way to provide entertainment for a complete stranger who wouldn’t even get a chance to thank you in person. Most of us help in situations where we feel it’s an emergency but you decided that living means more than just surviving. The luxury of watching a movie is not essential to survival but these little things can mean so much, we are more than just water and carbon after all. I wish I could have been there and sent he old man’s face, and heard his cries of joy as he watched the movie. If everyone was like you, Christmas would be great. LoboBlanco: I would have wished to hear a specific example of such a story in the context of this giveaway. This doesn’t mean your actions aren’t worthy of mention, they are worthy and very much so. In my opinion, no disabled person in a wheelchair should ever have to ask staff at the grocery story for help with getting stuff from high spots. Other customers should readily offer their help before even being asked. Sure, the staff gets paid to work there and is required to help customers but we shouldn’t just delegate helping to those who are paid to do it. If everyone helps just little, no single person would have to go out of their way and sacrifice a lot of their time by helping. I often offer help to people in wheelchairs and have found them surprisingly self-sufficient, most often they turn down any help but they do appreciate it and sometimes they really need it. So I hope you keep doing what you do LoboBlanco. 011284mm: At least you’re straightforward. That is a quality, too. I’d rather have someone abandon me on the road rather than forcing themselves to stay with me and then complain later on how they had to put up with my misfortune and how annoying that was. I wouldn’t hold any resentment toward you either but simply take a mental note that I can’t rely on you in case of a real emergency. It’s better to know that beforehand because most people are helpful in mild emergencies but when - as you say - SHTF then you get to see the real deal and expecting too much from someone can not only turn into disappointment but cost lives.
As long as you don’t work in a capacity where the safety of people’s lives depends on you such as the captain of the Sewol ferry.
EDIT: This was one of the first replies I drafted up and I had to smile when I read monkeydlarge’s reply to you which is pretty much exactly the same as mine, apparently you’re not going to get any flak from of us here. Of course you’re not likely to win the game in the context of this giveaway but you certainly earn my respect for being upfront and honest. You also get plus points for your later post (number 14). When I read the sentence “I took basically all I could carry and ducked out”, I had to laugh out loudly. Hilarious stuff. Babark: You have unlocked the ‘Fountain of Life’ achievement! Offering a drink to a stranger is a most noble deed. I’ve travelled around in places where there was no water available (desert, island, mountains) and had to occasionally rely on the kindness of strangers for water. It’s a humbling experience. Asking strangers for a favor isn’t easy so it’s very uplifting to see that there are people like you out there who are not only observant but able to spontaneously and quickly jump into action. This reminds me of my favorite scene in ‘El Cid’ when Rodrigo offers his pouch of water to a leper. It’s this scene that stuck most with me, not the battle scenes.
I was very amused trying to picture you with that undersized hat on your head, trying to look all jovial and stuff. It’s as if the hat was a metaphor for your greatness: The hat is too small for you because you gave that guy a drink and therefore the gift of Life itself (who knows, he might have suffered from a heat stroke later on), consequently the Universe didn’t allow you to be repaid with just a little hat. The tailor will have to go on and save someone in similar fashion to pay forward the favor and restore his karma balance :)

Gbaz69: Would selling what appears to be most of your belongings to help out a relative qualify as a Good Samaritan deed? Hell yes, it most certainly does. Even if it’s a relative and not a stranger, this is by far the most impressive deed of all in this thread because you made a big permanent sacrifice. This is something that the fewest of people can do. I’d most likely not be able to do this, sadly. What little possessions I have aren’t worth a lot of money since it’s for the most part free furniture I picked up on the street/traded with friends but either way, I just can’t picture myself making such drastic decisions. You may have lost material possessions but this made you grow as a person. Considering you already had to be a great person before in order to even do this, you’re kind of saintlike now. You really put the money where the mouth is and follow through. Based on the magnitude of your generosity it's a bit difficult to compare your contribution to the others in this giveaway due to being on an entirely different level and giving more everday-ish actions of Good Samaritanism no chance in comparison, it's like an elephant in a porcelain store. We need an example of Samaritanism that normal humans could do, you clearly have evolved into something more advanced. It would feel weird if I threw my tiny little gift at a giant like you.

Treasure: The people you helped weren’t in real danger and helping out in this situation wouldn’t cross the minds of most people but you took what little resources you had (a simple umbrella) and turned it into the most awesome thing those people would encounter that day. Actually, the most awesome thing there was you, the umbrella was just an extension of your awesomeness. It was your holy shield as you gallantly rode out to protect the weak just like a true knight is supposed to do. Getting soaked in heavy rain wasn’t going to seriously harm any of those students but a true knight doesn’t always have to kill dragons to be valiant. You not only helped one person, you went on to assist many others just like Forrest Gump when he goes back and forth into the jungle to carry out his injured buddies in what is considered to be the most epic scene of the movie. I would probably only have helped one person and then continued on my way, perhaps that’s why I score as a true neutral human druid on those D&D personality tests and not as a lawful good paladin which is what I would like to be. Your story shows that in order to be a hero, sometimes one doesn’t need particular skill or lots of resources, there are plenty of situations like this in life where virtually everyone could rise above normal courtesy and become a true Good Samaritan but most decide not to, using many excuses. Because what you did could be done by anyone (but isn’t!) and is not only noteworthy as an achievement but also very entertaining and original as a story and could be turned into a fun video game (Umbrella Taxi sounds fun), I would like to reward you by gifting you a game code for The Samaritan Paradox. Dry your wet clothes and enjoy the game! (check your PM inbox for the code)

Mrstarker: I fully agree with you, Sartre, Batman’s girlfriend and everyone who says it: it’s your actions that define you. We’ve all been in those crap situations where no one helps and it’s natural to feel sad and even angry about it. But a good person channels any such sentiment into not making the same mistake as those who didn’t help him/her and instead shows Fate the middle finger it quite so often deserves. The people at that bus stop would have come up with all kinds of excuses if later asked about why they didn’t help but fortunately you were there. One can imagine that the Estonian winter and an elderly Italian lady are not an ideal combination so props to you for not just being a lazy minimalist and pointing into the right direction but going out of your way to see this through to the very end. All it takes is one awesome person to offset the failure of many in such cases. Hoping that the next person will surely help is lame. You did the right thing by deciding to end that infernal loop of apathy. If everyone was as awesome as you, you wouldn’t have needed to walk her all the way because you could have found other passerbies to ‘relay race’ the lady to her final destination, everyone going with her for a while so no one has to move too far from where they were standing. But such a thing happening is uncertain and you didn’t leave anything to chance.

monkeydelarge: You may feel like you didn’t actively help because no emergency was present but there was no way to know this beforehand and yes, most people would have walked by. If one would ask them why they didn’t check up on the smoke they’d come up with incredibly logic excuses such as ‘well if it was a fire there would be sirens or something.’ You did the right thing by -not- assuming that it wasn’t an emergency and considering that smoke kills more people than fire does, you could have potentially saved someone’s life there.

VanGe1: Yes it might not seem heroic and rather something that everyone should do by default but that’s not the case. While I can’t remember seeing a highly pregnant woman not getting a seat (the very idea is unimaginable), I have seen mothers/fathers struggling with baby strollers and I’ve helped in such occasions but usually –and fortunately- it’s often difficult to get there before someone else helps. Most often this is the case when they try to board the bus and someone has to keep pushing the door button so the doors won’t close, trapping the baby stroller and leaving the hapless parent on the street. But occasionally, there are situations where one is the only one around to help and it’s good to know there are people like you out there, keeping an eye open not only to what happens in front of their own feet but also to what’s happening on the other side of the road.

-----

Final decision: It was downright impossible to compare and judge all your good deeds against each other. The situations and variables are too different. You are not competing against each other on any moral level. Instead, you can inspire each other to keep being as awesome as you already are and hopefully inspire others to start being awesome, it’s never too late. If I had more money I would gift every single one of you a code of The Samaritan Paradox. But if I had more money, I would be travelling and wouldn’t be playing games and spending time on forums so this giveaway wouldn’t exist. Again, kind of a Good Samaritan paradox.

I have to give the code to one person though and after some deliberation (and a couple hours of writing a wall of potential TLDR) decided to give it to Treasure aka Umbrella Taxi. Congratulations to you, and to all of you!

Wow, I never experienced a giveaway like this, really inspirational, and two massive posts containing a response to every single story, which clearly show a lot of work and time, therefore huge interest?
I would like to thank you all for something good and memorable to read today, and especially awalterj, for providing us with the chance to do so.
Now I know I have to play the actual game, since this thread will be connected to it.

I’ve learned a lot of wisdom from all of you at a comparatively low material price so I feel quite fortunate.
I certainly hope you’ll get to play The Samaritan Paradox one way or another, it’s definitely worthy of purchasing even if it isn’t discounted.

No big deal to you perhaps, but I'm sure the old lady highly values your help. I have no car either (not even a license to drive) so I'm well aware of how it is to be unmotorized, not that big of a problem if there's public transportation or if it's less than 3-4 miles I'll just walk but for moving furniture I'm entirely dependent on the help of friends just like the old lady in your town.
About keeping track of good deeds as opposed to just doing it without even thinking much about it, I agree that being a Good Samaritan should just be normal everyday behavior but since it often isn't, I like to keep tracks of such things in order to remind myself of where I could have helped but didn't, and to remind myself that if I helped out before then why not do it again in the future. It's not second nature to me and the idea of helping others often clashes with my neutral mindedness so I need a little inspiration to become a better person.

PS: Sorry that the giveaway was already concluded when you made your post but the stories of all the members are still here to be read and enjoyed and that's way more important than the one little gift code, this thread isn't about that primarily.

‘Minor’ courtesies like holding a door/picking up a coin etc are supposed to be automatic but I’m observing every single day that you can’t take these things for granted. And since not everyone is as awesome as jdsiege (changing tires for a stranger) or gbaz69 (sold all furniture to raise money for relative’s rent) one has to start somewhere. And even small good deeds will accumulate into something great over time.

Your lab partner chose well, as it appears you are a great person. Nice example of another good deed that anyone could have done but not anyone would do - understandably in some places and neighborhoods where the person appearing to help is highly likely to steal the TV and people are therefore cautious about accepting or giving help.
Helping people isn’t always easy, sometimes it reminds me of that scene in Fight Club where the members have to go out and pick a fight but no one wants to fight them. When you try to help people out of the blue, they sometimes react similarly.

Thanks again for the giveaway awalterj ! Truth be told I didn't expect to win- the stories other people mentioned were in a more charitable spirit, which is more of a trend nowadays than other kinds of help (see Humble Bundle :-) ). Thus, I was pleasantly surprised- and I thought as well I could buy every other participant codes as a winning treat-if only I were rich ! :-D
P.S. It was indeed nice of you to reply to every single poster (even though we weren't that many to begin with ! ). As for the walls of text, they weren't that long (I tend to write longer than that !).

Thank you to awalterj for a fun and interesting giveaway, and to the entrants, for their inspiring deeds.. Also, congratulations to Treasure. :)


I can assure you that had it been anything slightly more technical I would have been as useful as a chocolate tea kettle. I have no mechanical skills whatsoever and would deem myself re"car"ded. I just happened upon a situation where I could be of assistance.