19-year-old Jake Wolf was headed to a chemistry lab at the University of Illinois in a pair of shorts. At first, Jake was excited to be wearing shorts, since it was so nice outside.
However, he realized en route to his lab that not wearing long pants to his lab would render him unable to participate in the class, since it was against the rules for safety reasons.
"I show up to my lab, it's 7:58, two minutes before my lab starts and I realize I'm in shorts, which is not good," he told BuzzFeed News.
The lab locks its doors at 8:10—not enough time to go home and change and get back for class.
"I panicked. I was like, how am I going to do this? If you miss a lab you're basically guaranteed to drop a letter grade."
In desperation, he stopped and asked a stranger for help.
"I'm by the business school and I see this one guy about to walk into the school and he's wearing sweatpants," Jake continued. "I said, 'Dude, I need your pants.'"
"I was like, 'You need to trust me. We need to go to the bathroom and change. I really need your help on this one.'"
"At the time I was just kind of shocked," said Sam Brown, the guy who Jake approached for pants-help. "And he explained again how he needed this because it would affect his grade. Then I felt like I should probably help this guy out."
"I realized afterwards, it all kind of happened blur, that oh my gosh I kind of just gave my pants to somebody."
Jake put Sam's name in his phone as "pants" because he didn't have the time to ask his name.
The two have been picking up social media traction pretty steadily since it happened:
"I know if a stranger came up to me and asked me to switch pants, I'd say no. I can't believe he did that for me," said Jake.
"In hindsight, I should've just gone to the bookstore across the street. They sell pants."
But when you made your mama proud:
That's all you need to worry about for the day.
If you're ever in this situation, let's hope you find a stranger just as kind. Or maybe it would be wise to keep a spare pair in your lab kit!
