A young Cuban known on Instagram as @melissahabla_ walked through a typical neighborhood on the island with a carton of eggs and a simple question, and the result left her speechless: all the people she offered free eggs to chose to refuse them so that they could be given to someone in greater need.
The experiment involved approaching passersby and offering them a quantity of eggs for free, with the option to keep them or leave them in the carton for a stranger who might need them even more. One by one, the participants chose the latter.
"No, sweetie, no, no, no. Leave it so they can give it to someone else who needs it," replied the first woman to whom the proposal was made. Another passerby was just as straightforward: "I think that other person needs it more." A third woman, upon hearing she could add five of her own eggs to the carton, clarified that she had nothing to contribute, but she also didn’t take the ones being offered: "Add them to other people."
At the end of the journey, the carton was full, not because of the content creator, but because of the accumulation of small sacrifices made by people who, amidst scarcity, chose to think of a stranger.
"Everyone we asked decided that we should give the carton of eggs to someone who needed them even more than they did," Melissa recounted at the end of the experiment.
The carton was delivered to a woman from the community, who received it with words of faith: "All I ask for is the blessing and guidance of our Lord, and that we will be blessed. And look, they are already doing it; I didn't fill this carton out myself, it was filled by several people who decided to help today."
The gesture takes on a special significance when considering the context in which it occurs. In the midst of an unprecedented crisis in Cuba, a carton of 30 eggs can cost over 3,000 pesos, an amount that exceeds the minimum monthly wage on the island.
In that scenario, giving up free eggs is not a trivial gesture: it is an act of generosity with significant material and symbolic weight.
The creator thanked her followers for the donations that made the experiment possible: "We can give away this carton of eggs today thanks to your donations. Thank you so much for all the support and trust."
The video garnered over 3,000 likes, with reactions highlighting the solidarity of the participants. "Kindness still abounds in many Cubans; despite having so many needs, they choose to help someone who needs it even more than they do," Melissa wrote in the description of the reel, summarizing in one sentence what the experiment demonstrated.
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