By Amal Al-Sibai
Saudi Gazette
What I love about stepping into bakeries is the waft that hits your face with the heartwarming smell of freshly baked bread. This particular bakery in Makkah is lined with shelves filled with a whole variety of delicious breads: white and whole wheat pita bread, buns, and rolls. However, this bakery in Makkah is different from almost all other bakeries.
In this bakery, there are no cashiers, security cameras, or sales persons. The only employees are the bakers who are busy working in the kitchen in the back side of the bakery.
The prices for all the baked goods are clearly marked. You take the bread that you need and drop the exact amount of money in a slot in the fixed cash box.
The owner of the bakery, Ghazi Hassan Tass, trusts the goodness in people to pay for the bread that they take. And if someone hungry walks into the bakery who is in need and cannot afford it, he/she can take the bread without paying. The bread is free for those in need.
At the end of every month, Ghazi opens the cash box and counts the money. The amount usually equals exactly what he should have earned. Ghazi says that his customers have proven that you can trust people and that goodness, honesty, and integrity still live on in people.
Ghazi’s bakery has been operating this way for the past year and a half and it has been doing surprisingly well financially.
The walls of the bakery have signs on them saying: “Take the bread yourself and pay yourself.”
“We trust you with no limits.”
People like Ghazi opened my eyes to the goodness in people and I started noticing it everywhere.
When I was recently grocery shopping, two baggers were helping bag my groceries. I always have change in my purse to tip the baggers. I gave one bagger some money and reached into my purse to grab money for the second bagger but before I could find the wad of cash, the man who I gave money to split his tip with the second bagger.
On one of our crazy, rushed mornings getting ready for school, I forgot to give my youngest daughter lunch money. That afternoon my daughter mentioned that her teacher bought her lunch. When I later saw her teacher and thanked her and gave her the money I owed her, she pushed my hand away and said, “Don’t even mention it, my students are like my children.”
What acts of goodness did you witness this week?
