MALAYSIA: An Instagram post from a user in Kuching, Sarawak, shared on 26 March 2025, has drawn significant attention after she recounted an emotional encounter at a traffic light in Padungan.
In the post, she described witnessing an elderly man sitting by the roadside, struggling to swallow blades of grass—a sight that deeply unsettled her.
As of today, the post has garnered 2.8 million views.
A Compassionate Act Amid Doubt
According to the user, she was waiting at the traffic light when she noticed the man eating grass.
Seeing his apparent difficulty, she felt an immediate urge to help.
However, as the light was about to change, she quickly asked the driver to pass him some money before they had to move on.
Overwhelmed by the encounter, she later broke down in tears, deeply affected by what she had witnessed.
She questioned the man’s circumstances—was he someone’s father, someone’s grandfather? Just how desperate must he have been to resort to eating grass?
As time passed, doubt began to creep in.
She started to wonder whether the man was truly in need or if he was deliberately staging the act to gain sympathy.
To find out, she and her companion decided to return to the location.
If he was still there, she reasoned, it might suggest that he was not as desperate as he seemed.
However, when they went back, the man was no longer there.
She speculated that he had likely gone to buy food.
Reflecting on the experience, she expressed relief that they had not given him a large sum of money.
“Fortunately, we didn’t give him RM100 (approximately US$22.36). If we had, I worried he might rely on this method to exploit people’s sympathy,” she said.
Still, she believed that regardless of whether the man was genuinely in need or not, she had done her part in showing kindness, and the rest was up to him.
Public Reactions and Debate
Her post quickly gained traction, sparking a wave of reactions from the public.
Many expressed deep sympathy for both the elderly man’s situation and the woman’s compassion.
One commenter shared, “You’re crying because you have a father or grandfather who loves you. I cried too,” emphasizing the emotional connection many felt to the story.
Another user wrote, “Part of it is because of the elderly man’s situation, and part of it is because of your kindness. The world may be broken and tattered, but you’re healing it with your kindness,” praising the woman’s empathy.
Several others expressed gratitude, with one person commenting, “Thank you for people like you in the world,” and another adding, “I want to cry just reading this…” highlighting the emotional impact of the post.
However, some comments took a more skeptical approach. One user said, “If you knew who he was before, you wouldn’t feel sorry for him,” suggesting that the man might have had a questionable past.
Another responded, “But he’s reached this point. Do you want to see him starve? Regardless of his past, he’s old now, and that alone is punishment. You have a father and grandfather too—wait until you get older before you judge him.”
The comment emphasized the idea that, regardless of the man’s past, he deserved compassion in his current state.
A few comments pointed out that the man might not have been as needy as he appeared.
One user, who claims to work at CIMB Bank, commented, “If you want to see his real face, go to CIMB Bank near Sarawak Plaza (a shopping complex in Kuching), where he eats and drinks every day.
You might feel sorry for him, but he consistently uses money from others to buy alcohol!
I never gave him money because I see him drinking beer every time. On several occasions, as soon as he entered the bank, he’d ask for money with one hand and hold a beer with the other.
If you really want to help him, give him food, not money—he’ll just spend it on alcohol.”
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