The Mysterious Benefactor

On Friday morning, a young father of a large Chabad family completed his grocery shopping for Shabbos and headed to the checkout line to pay.

Once the total for his purchases was calculated, he took out his credit card and gave it to the cashier to pay the bill, which totaled NIS 850 – $250.

“I’m sorry, sir,” said the cashier. “But your credit card did not go through.”

Thinking that this was very strange, the young man called his wife and asked her for the number of her credit card over the phone. He then brought the number to the counter, but this didn’t work either, as the card was from the same account.

The man didn’t know what to do at this point, as it was already 2:30 pm and it was almost closing time. So he called his father for assistance, and returned to the counter a few minutes later with his father’s credit card number. However when he returned to the checkout counter this time, he was in for a surprise.

“There’s no need for this card,” said the checkout girl with a smile. “Someone else has paid for your entire shopping!”

“Who paid for me?” the man asked, in utter amazement. “How is that possible? I’ve been here for a while already trying to sort this out!”

“It was the guy who just walked out of here and got into a black Mercedes,” replied the checkout girl, pointing towards the doorway.

The young man ran outside, where he saw a black Mercedes starting to drive away, and he tried to flag it down. But the car continued to move. After finally convincing the driver to stop, he asked him his name and for a telephone number so that he could contact him and arrange to pay him back.

“There’s no need,” said the mystery benefactor. “Simply daven for the success of Erez ben Shlomit, and that should be enough!” he said, before hitting the gas pedal and speeding off into Jerusalem.