THEY say one good turn deserves another, so I hope I don’t land anybody in trouble by telling you about someone who did one for me last week.

I was returning to my car following a meeting that went on longer than expected, and I knew my parking ticket was close to running out.

As I arrived at the car park, my heart sank. A traffic warden – or whatever you call them these days – was already scrutinising the ticket, and apparently starting to write one of his own.

It was 6.03pm and, as I later discovered, the ticket ran out at 5.53pm. I was guilty by exactly ten minutes, and without a leg to stand on.

As I got in the car, the man said something about getting myself a ticket, and I muttered something polite about it being a shame because I was only ten minutes late after paying for two hours.

“No,” the man corrected me. “I said you NEARLY got yourself a ticket.”

He had let me off.

You read that right: he actually let me off!

I was so shocked, all I could muster was a mumbled ‘thank you’, but I have to say it made my evening, and possibly my whole week.

When the world’s jobsworths line up in front of the Devil for their inevitable entry into eternal damnation, I am pretty sure we are expecting traffic wardens to be near the front of the queue, but I can report that at least one of them will be missing.

I debated with myself whether I should be telling you all this because some managerial jobsworth will no doubt be saying that traffic wardens have no right to go round exercising mercy and displaying their humanity in this way.

So I am deliberately not revealing any more details, and if I knew the name of the Good Samaritan in question, wild horses couldn’t drag it out of me.

Together, we’ve robbed the council’s coffers of yet another parking fine, but – and I know they won’t necessarily see it this way – there are huge consolations.

On a day when cowards were beheading an innocent man in one part of the world, here in our part of the world some faith in humanity was being restored by a simple act.

It has got me thinking that if we all did that, especially the jobsworths, goodwill would snowball and we would all have more to smile about.

As one good turn really does deserve another, I will be going out of my way to do one for somebody else.

So will my wife. She recently had a similar experience when she was trying to help an elderly aunt sort out a fault with her phone and luckily bumped into a friend who happens to be a telecommunications expert, who kindly offered to fix the problem.

He would take nothing for his time and trouble, but suggested my wife might do a good turn for somebody else instead.

So, between us, we are in debt to two good turns at the moment.

Mind you, be careful you don’t take the idea too far.

The same elderly aunt had some business to sort out at the solicitor’s, and my wife accompanied her there. The result was a hefty bill, as it often is when you go to the solicitor’s.

However, this kindly aunt gets pleasure from paying people more than they charge, so enquired of my wife whether it is customary to tip solicitors. And if so, by how much?