The Nice Guy

Around 4:30 in the morning, after running three and a half miles, I passed a very old man who was in his seventies. He was carrying a bag which had some food inside it. This happened between Queens Boulevard and Main Street.
 
He asked me, "Excuse me, which way is the subway?"
 
I said, "I'm very sorry. I don't know."
 
The old man said, "Never mind, you are a nice guy."

After I went on about 200 metres, I remembered: "Oh, he is walking towards the highway. How is he going to get the subway there?"
 
So I ran back to get him. O God, he was coming back; somebody else had already told him to head towards Queens Boulevard.
 
But when he saw I came back to help him, he said, "I knew you were a nice guy."
 
-21 September 1979  
 

[Source: "The Nice Guy" in Sri Chinmoy,  Run and Become, Become and Run, Part 2, Agni Press/Aum Publications, Jamaica, New York, 1979.]