Gracious Singaporean

I was queuing at the counter of the NTUC supermart earlier and met a very gracious Singaporean.

A young man, probably in his 30s or so, was making payment. An NTUC staff member was with him when I caught part of the conversation and heard the customer said, "give it to the auntie". Straightaway, he turned to me and asked if I had the NTUC card. I fished out my LinkPoints card and showed it to him and he said, that's the one.

He asked the cashier to credit the points from his purchases to my card. His total purchases came to nearly S$1400. NTUC awards 2 points for every dollar spent, which meant that my card was credited with nearly 3000 points. The cashier said that 3000 points will qualify me for a S$20 NTUC voucher. Thank you very much! A pity I didn't ask for his name. Well, this is one of those times where I don't mind being called an 'auntie'.

When asked, he confirmed that the purchases were for charity and the items (mostly staples like rice, etc) were meant for a Buddhist temple in Simpang Bedok. Later, I learnt from the cashier that this customer comes regularly to make similar huge purchases.

NTUC currently also has a promotion on, where 1 point is given for every S$20 spent. These points are printed after the receipt and they can then be exchanged for stainless steel cookware. This customer did not want them too and asked the cashier to give them to 'this auntie' too. However, the cashier was quick to tell him that 'if you don't want them, then we want them', and promptly stashed all the slips away.

I admired him not only for his philanthropic act, but also his quiet demeanor while he carried out his transaction.