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This just makes me think of that line from Batman Begins again... "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." Charity has its time and its place, but I don't think this was it. I don't think you would have been doing anybody any favors by paying for their groceries. Everybody has rough times, and to have some stranger step in and assume that they are saving you from something you can fix yourself does a lot more damage than having to go without milk for a week. It deprives you of an opportunity to do something for yourself and it makes you feel forever indebted (and often inferior) to the people who "helped" you. I know; I've been there. (Also, I don't see how the fact that they spoke little English is relevant to the fact that they were short on cash. Would it have been easier to decide what to do if they spoke English perfectly?)
Next time it happens, if you really want to help AND pay for the groceries, just buy the groceries they leave behind, hand them over to the family outside of the store and say you accidentally paid already and you don't want to go back into the store to return them. You can even leave the bag of groceries on the ground if they are too stunned or embarrassed to take them. If they really need it, they'll take it when you leave.
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"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
(Michael Jordan)
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