I was at the park a couple of days before Christmas when a homeless man rolled his bicycle, loaded will all his belongings, up and asked if I had anything that could help him air up the tire; I have a small air compressor in the truck so we tried that. He never asked me for any money even when we determined the inner tube on his tire needed to be replaced; after talking for a few minutes he started to leave and pushed his bike down the road. Since he wasn't trying to bum money from me, and it was Christmas time, I decided to help him out and gave him the $3 he needed for a new inner tube.
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Yesterday the same man saw me and made a point to shake my hand and thank me for helping him when he really needed it. I let him know I was glad to help and made sure he knew I wasn't made of money; so when he asked me for one more favor I thought for sure he wanted a hand out. Instead he asked if I wanted to take a few pictures of him and his wife because he thought people or the news paper might buy pictures of the homeless; and this was his way of trying to pay me back. I'm not going to try and sell the pictures to him or anyone else; in fact he is getting free prints simply because his gesture was a testament of his character.
Another version:
I hope the New Year brings good things to everyone, and may the kindness you've given to others return many times to you.
~ John