Retired teacher generously offers help to man appearing low on cash. He turns out to be A-list singer

Many people experience a different kind of joy by helping people in need and giving back to society. A retired elementary school teacher, Ruth Reed, is one of them. The woman took a New Year's resolution around 2015 to help people whenever she could. She thought that she would treat somebody once a week at Wawa, which is a convenience store. "It has done wonders for me," Reed shared in an interview with Pickler and Ben on YouTube. "It makes me feel good."

The former teacher continued, "If sometimes I am in a bad mood, I treat [someone] and I feel better." However, things took a surprising turn when the woman didn't recognize a celebrity and decided to pay for his snacks when she saw him struggling to find cash. The man turned out to be Keith Urban, a popular country singer, songwriter and guitarist.

He was getting ready to pay until Reed interrupted and said, "I've got it." The woman revealed that she went to Wawa often enough for people to know her and about her habit of paying for people's stuff. "He tried to tell me no, he said, 'No, I have this.'" She recalled, "He put his five dollars in the donation bin and I am explaining to him why I am doing this and he is politely nodding his head."

"He thanked me and asked my name. I asked him his and he told me it was Keith," Reed remarked. "I said that he did look like Keith Urban, he said he was." The woman simply couldn't believe him and had a banter trying to make him accept that he was not Keith Urban. "I asked where Nicole [Kidman, his wife] was and who was the lady. He told me it was his sister. He finally said that I could ask his bodyguard. It was then I realized what an idiot I was. He graciously allowed me to get my picture taken with him. Another Ruth Reed moment!” Reed wrote on a Facebook post that was later reshared by her student Olivia Rose Prouse, who goes by @liverdiverz on X.

The student captioned the post, "My favorite story of the day is how my 3rd-grade teacher thought Keith Urban was down on his luck and couldn’t pay for his Wawa snacks so she bought them for him. What an angel." The woman confirmed his identity with Urban's bodyguard who assured her that the man was indeed Keith Urban. The singer even took a picture with Reed outside Wawa. Reed who goes by @reed_ruth on X tweeted, " Keith Urban, thank you for the photo at Wawa. You were so gracious. I'm a celebrity with my FB friends now! Thanks!"

"He could've said, 'Hey old lady, you've argued with me about who I was and now you want a picture,' but he didn't, he was so nice," the former teacher told Pickler & Ben. Reed, her son and her daughter-in-law even got to attend Keith's concert that he came to New Jersey for. "He was unbelievable," she exclaimed.

Once her story blew up, several people came forward to appreciate the woman for what she did. "Millions of people do this every day and I wanted to get out that we need to be kind to each other. But guess what, we are kind to each other." She added, "Sometimes we don't notice and appreciate the little kindnesses that happen to us every day."