A Story on Kindness: Model Answer for School Exams with Marking Notes
Quick answer: An original 180-word exam story on kindness, set in a Manchester classroom, with notes on why it scores under content, organisation and expression, plus three other plots.
A story on kindness earns marks when the kindness is specific, costs the giver something small, and is never explained. Show one act, repeated or not, and show its effect through what the receiver does, not through what the narrator says about it. The model below is about 180 words and avoids the two commonest versions, the beggar at the gate and the injured bird, because examiners have read those many times.
Kindness stories drift into sentiment fast. The cure is objects and habits: a sandwich, a card, a pencil case. Keep the feelings off the page and let the reader supply them.
The task
Typical wording: 'Write a story in about 150 to 200 words on the theme of kindness. Give it a suitable title.' Some papers supply an outline: 'a new student ... no lunch ... a classmate notices ... a quiet solution ... months later.' Either way the marker wants a specific act, not a general good nature.
Model answer
Two Sandwiches. Sam Okafor joined Leah's class in Manchester in the middle of a wet January. He sat at the back, said very little, and at lunch he always told the teacher he had eaten at home. Leah noticed because she noticed most things. Nobody ate lunch at home at eight in the morning.
The next day she packed two sandwiches and told Sam her mother had made a mistake. 'You might as well have one,' she said. 'It will only go soft.' Sam looked at the sandwich for a long time before he took it.
Her mother made the same mistake every day for a month. Leah never asked why Sam had no lunch, and Sam never explained. They talked about football instead, and about the fox that lived behind the science block.
In July the class made cards for the end of term. Sam's card to Leah had a drawing of a fox and one line inside: 'Thank your mum for the mistakes.' Leah kept it in her pencil case for the rest of school.
Why it earns marks
Against the three heads:
Three other ways to take the same topic
Each keeps the kindness specific and the feelings unspoken.
What writers can take from this
- One act, named and repeated if possible.
- Make the kindness cost something small and visible.
- Protect the receiver's dignity; a disguise for the kindness shows maturity.
- Show the effect through the receiver's action, not the giver's feelings.
- Avoid beggars, birds and blind men; examiners have read them.
- Keep the word 'kind' out of the story entirely.
Try it yourself
Write a 180-word story in which one character is kind to another without the second character ever realising it was deliberate. End on an object rather than a feeling.
Questions
How long should a story on kindness be?
As long as the question says. School papers usually set 150 to 200 words, CBSE Class 9 sets 100 to 120, ICSE 300 to 350. The model can drop to 120 by cutting the third paragraph and the last sentence.
Can I write a kindness story in the first person?
Yes, but be careful. A first-person narrator who is kind can sound pleased with themselves. It often works better to narrate from the point of view of the receiver, or to keep the narrator's own kindness understated.
Do I need a moral at the end of a kindness story?
Only if the question asks. If it does, one plain line such as 'Small kindnesses are remembered longer than large speeches' is enough. Do not let the moral repeat what the ending already showed.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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