It was supposed to be a short family getaway. Instead, Catherine found herself stuck at a border toll gantry, walking from car to car and asking strangers for help while a long line of vehicles built up behind her.
Nobody could help. Then one man called out to her, and a small act of kindness turned into a story that hundreds of thousands of people have now seen.
Stuck at the Gantry With No Way Through
Catherine, a 39-year-old Singaporean who sells and creates content on TikTok and Shopee, was driving into Johor Bahru, Malaysia, with her family on October 4, according to Stomp. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon at the busy Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex.
It was only her second time driving into Johor Bahru. The first trip had gone smoothly, with the payment taken automatically from her account. This time, the reader couldn’t scan her car’s Vehicle Entry Permit tag.
When that happens, drivers usually fall back on a physical Touch ‘n Go card, a contactless payment card widely used in Malaysia. Catherine didn’t have one with her.
“I honestly didn’t know that I might need to use a physical card if the VEP system didn’t work,” she wrote in her post, as quoted by Red Hot Singapore.
“I Asked Car After Car”
So she got out of her car and started asking the drivers around her if she could borrow their cards. She promised to transfer the money back to them right away.
“I asked car after car, but unfortunately, nobody could help me. Some people said they didn’t have a card either,” she recalled to Stomp.
She said she felt helpless and stressed as the queue behind her grew longer. In her post, she also wrote that the officers there didn’t really give her a solution, so she was simply stuck there with her car.
Anyone who has ever held up a line of impatient drivers knows that feeling. Your face goes hot. Every second feels like a minute. You just want someone, anyone, to say yes.
The Man Who Said Yes
“And then, suddenly, this gentleman called out to me and offered to let me use his card to make the payment. Honestly, it felt like a little miracle at that moment,” Catherine said.
She used his card, got through, and went back to return it. That’s when she noticed his car was stuck at the gantry too, because the reader couldn’t scan his permit tag either.
She tried to pay him back right there. The amount was small, around RM20 to RM40 by her estimate, which Stomp put at about S$6 to S$12. But the complex was too crowded and chaotic to sort it out.
When the man finally got through, she offered again. “But he told me it was okay and that I didn’t need to return the money. He simply wished me, ‘Have a nice day,’ and drove away,” she said.
Finding Him Through TikTok
Catherine couldn’t stop thinking about him. On October 5 she posted about the encounter on TikTok, hoping to find the driver and thank him properly.
“I still remember his face, and I really hope I can find him,” she wrote, according to Red Hot Singapore.
The post took off, drawing more than 223,000 views and 6,600 likes, Stomp reported. Viewers shared it and helped identify the driver. One commenter even said the car’s owner was their brother, and Catherine replied that she had already spoken with him and was grateful to his family for raising such a kind man.
When she reached him, he again told her not to worry about the money. Instead, he asked her to pass the good deed on by helping someone else.
“His words encouraging me to pass this kindness on to others have stayed with me,” she said. “What touched me the most was not the amount of money he helped me with, but the fact that he understood how I was feeling.”
Why He Stopped to Help
The stranger’s name is Md Farihin Khan. He’s 39 and works in the chemical industry, and he was heading to Johor Bahru for a holiday with his wife and friends that day, he told Stomp.
He said he didn’t take the money because he “helped her genuinely and did not expect anything in return.”
“For me, the important thing was knowing that I was able to help her when she needed it,” he said.
It turns out he knew exactly how she felt. A few years earlier, he had been caught in a similar situation and felt just as helpless.
“The encounter reminded me that even a small act of kindness can make a meaningful difference in someone’s life,” he said. “I hope my actions encouraged the woman and showed her that there are people who genuinely care.”
It was a few dollars and a few seconds. But to someone stuck at a gantry with a line of cars behind her, it was everything. And now it’s being passed on.
If this story restored a little of your faith in people, share it. You never know who needs a reminder that kind strangers are still out there.