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What's The Catch?
As a volunteer on the day of our "no strings attached" experiment, I found the experience eye-opening. In the few moments after we began to pass out the goodie bags, it didn't take long before I noticed people reluctantly accepting or flat-out rejecting the items we wanted to hand out. In peoples' minds, it was inconceivable that their was no agenda, no motive and no gain from our random acts of kindness. Ironically, even several of the folks we encountered (who were obviously down on their luck at this time in their life) were giving us mistrusting gazes seeking to understand our end goal instead of just taking free items.
It dawned on me during those moments how jaded people have become. People have no problem believing or understanding negative events and outcomes. In fact, I believe that is what people genuinely expect. But, throw in a free bag of goodies coupled with some free hugs and a constant stream of genuine smiles and you may as well be speaking a different language. Very unexpected and therefore there must be a catch! To me this just means there is much work to do in this world in order to regain peoples' trust in humanity.
--Mohit Jain on Aug 8, 2010
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