If you’re thinking, “Not much,” I am here to challenge you. 

A few months ago, while I was walking in downtown Philadelphia I saw a man and woman try to get into a Philly Pretzel Shop on 18th Street, but it was closed. 

The women turned to her partner and clearly disappointed, said, “Such a bummer, I wanted to try Philly Pretzels so bad.” 

All of this was happening just three feet away from me and since I happen to know the Center City very well, I told them there’s another Pretzel Factory just a few blocks down on 16^th street. 

“Oh, that’s great! We didn’t know. We’re just visiting from Austin and wanted to try the famous Philly pretzels. What’s the exact location?”

I proceeded to explain in detail how to get to 16th and Sansom St. They were both grateful and excited. As we walked away, I saw them head toward the second pretzel shop I told them about.

Then I got this sneaky idea…

Since I was going in that direction anyway, I decided I would head there too. I knew I could easily beat them to the pretzel shop, since tourists usually spend some time looking around when walking in a foreign city. Now I was on a mission.

Fortunately, this pretzel location was open like I had anticipated. I quickly entered, pulled out a five-dollar bill and told the cashier that in less than 5 minutes a couple of tourists from Austin would come and ask for pretzels. I asked her to give them five dollar’s worth of pretzels and tell them they’re from the woman they talked to about directions earlier. 

The cashier replied, “Sure, cool.” and off I went with my day. 

For the rest of the afternoon, I giggled to myself thinking about what their reaction must’ve been like.  After I told the story to my husband he commented, “Seems like this was a good use of $5. It made you so happy.”

I was going to leave my good deed at that but I was curious to know whether my plan actually worked or if my Texan friends had gotten derailed by another shop or restaurant and forgot all about the pretzels.

So, a few days later, to quench my curiosity, I stopped at that pretzel shop and asked the same cashier if the Austin couple came and got their pretzels. 

She smiled and said it was hilarious how shocked they were when they arrived, told the cashier they were from Austin and were handed free pretzels. 

Supposedly they kept asking for my name and phone number afterwards but the cashier didn’t have that information.

I was just so excited that my little trick worked and now I can imagine them telling this story to their friends back at home. Maybe they’ll even talk about how nice Philadelphians are (since that’s normally not what we’re known for)…

I thanked the cashier for playing along and as I was walking out, she turned to her co-workers quite excited and said, “Oh, guys, I forgot to tell you this funny story…” 

Over the last two years of studying everything related to happiness I learned that spending $5 on others can give us more happiness than spending $20 on ourselves.  

I tested this theory. 

And it worked 100%. Not only that, but for weeks following this event, whenever I thought about my sneaky idea or told someone about it I would get a boost of happiness. 

So, the next time you see an opportunity to surprise someone with a small, fun act of kindness that will cost you $5 or less, don’t hesitate. Just do it. It will not only make the person receiving your kindness feel great, but it will make you feel amazing too.