Target Secret Santa

Debra Durall was looking for inspiration, "I was feeling really, really down."

And by the time she left work last Wednesday she'd found it. "I cried all the way home and just thanked the Lord," she says.

It all happened at register 11 on a normal night. When a customer's credit card was denied that bill was quietly paid by a stranger.

"I'm like it's a lot, it's 161 dollars and 85 cents and she says that's 'ok', I've needed help before and I want to help them," Debra recalls.

The generous stranger left before the family did and it was Debra's job to tell them.

"The wife she started tearing up, she goes why would anybody do that for me? It really touched me."

It inspired that struggling family too and the kindness began to spread. They gave Debra a twenty dollar bill to use for the next customers and the act of kindness kept spreading until two teenage girls got to Debra's register. "They're teenagers! What would I have done as a teenager, score! I wouldn't pass it on to the next person, but they did it," she says.

And the money left over from that, $11.51, went on to another person.

Debra shared the story with her Facebook friends and on the Target fan page.  Now nine days later, the story has gone viral. It has more than 242,000 likes, more than 17,000 comments and those numbers are still growing.

It's overwhelming for Debra who feels she's learned a lesson. "They may not hit a like button, they may not make a comment, but you're really not as invisible as you think you are, and you can impact people."

She says simple kindness can go as far as that 161 dollars one woman decided to pay, "I will always remember her, and she has no idea the impact she made on how many people, she just has no idea."