Oct 15, 2026 · 3 min · 5 segments
Rika Matsuda was reminded of a kindness from a stranger when she was seven through a writing assignment. After a bike crash, a man helped her and gave her an origami crane. She never saw the man…
It was faster than her old one, and at the park she headed straight for a wall because the brakes didn't work.
He was tall and strong, she remembers, and at first she didn't know whether to trust him.
Then he asked, "Are you okay?" His voice was kind and gentle, and that settled it.
He let her use his phone to call her grandfather, and while they waited, he pulled out a sheet of white paper and taught her to fold an origami crane.
He folded it cleanly and carefully, and Rika later guessed he wanted her thinking about the paper instead of her foot.
When her grandfather arrived, the man helped get her and the bike home, and at the parting, he handed her the crane without a word and walked away.
Then at 17, her high school English teacher, Benjamin Johnson, assigned a story about a Good Samaritan encounter.
Inside was a well-known Japanese expression that means to treasure moments because they may never happen again.
A stranger left a note where he knew someone would eventually look, and he didn't need to see the result.
It was faster than her old one, and at the park she headed straight for a wall because the brakes didn't work.
He was tall and strong, she remembers, and at first she didn't know whether to trust him.
Then he asked, "Are you okay?" His voice was kind and gentle, and that settled it.
He let her use his phone to call her grandfather, and while they waited, he pulled out a sheet of white paper and taught her to fold an origami crane.
He folded it cleanly and carefully, and Rika later guessed he wanted her thinking about the paper instead of her foot.
When her grandfather arrived, the man helped get her and the bike home, and at the parting, he handed her the crane without a word and walked away.
Then at 17, her high school English teacher, Benjamin Johnson, assigned a story about a Good Samaritan encounter.
Inside was a well-known Japanese expression that means to treasure moments because they may never happen again.
A stranger left a note where he knew someone would eventually look, and he didn't need to see the result.
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