378 People ‘Pay It Forward’ At A Florida Starbucks

Well, this is a really cool story that will help restore a little bit of your faith in humanity.

A random act of kindness at a Starbucks drive-thru in Florida inspired an 11-hour continuous chain of people paying-it-forward.

A woman drove through and purchased an iced coffee at 7 a.m. on Wednesday at the St. Petersburg Starbucks, and also asked to pay for a caramel macchiato for the driver directly behind her. That driver then did the same for the next customer.

After a few people continued the chain, the Starbucks employees started to keep track of how many people did it on a piece of paper by the window.

By 1:30 p.m., 260 people had paid it forward, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Each one of them ordered their own drinks and paid for one for the person behind them. Every time someone came to the window, the barista would inform them that their drink had been paid for by the person in front of them and asked if they would like to do the same for the person behind them. In total, 378 continued the trend.

The baristas thought that if this lasted until closing, at 10 p.m., they would put the remaining money on a gift card and continue the trend the next day, according to the Tampa Bay Times. It didn't quite make it that far, though.

At 6 p.m., the 379th customer ended the chain by ordering a coffee and declining to pay for the next one. Which is kind of cheap of them, when you think about it. You went to Starbucks expecting to shell out $7.50 for your latte and got it for free and you weren't willing to pay it forward? Hmph.