You have to read this story, we aren’t even joking.
31 year old Julio Diaz is a social worker in NYC. He has a routine — on his way home from work to the Bronx, he gets off one stop early to eat at his favorite diner. Every night.
He’s been doing this for years, except one night was not like the others. When he stepped off the train, a teen pulled a knife on him and demanded his wallet.
Julio explained the scary, but ultimately life changing encounter, saying:
“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go.'”
Julio had something spark inside of him before the teen could walk away:
“‘Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.’ He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?'”
“‘If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.’ You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help.”
SO THEY WENT TO THE DINER!
They sat in a booth together:
“The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi. The kid was like, ‘You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'”
“‘No, I just eat here a lot.’ He says, ‘But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.’
“‘Well, haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody?’
“‘Yea, but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way.’
He then asked the teen what he wanted out of life, but the boy couldn’t answer. Then the bill arrived:
“‘Look, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this bill ’cause you have my money and I can’t pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I’ll gladly treat you.’ [He] didn’t even think about it. I gave him $20 … I figure maybe it’ll help him. I don’t know.”
Diaz then asked for something in return, which he was given — the knife. This is when Diaz lets us know he means business about changing the world:
“I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets in this complicated world.”
Absolutely.
We’re stunned at how amazing this story is. If only the rest of the people in the world could find it in them to be a little more like Julio Diaz.
[Image via AP Images.]