Woman on subway takes off her shoes, gives them to barefooted homeless woman

TIMES SQUARE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A random act of kindness is all it took for a homeless woman to get a pair of shoes.

A subway passenger took off her shoes and gave them to the barefoot homeless woman.

The Good Samaritan posted a picture of the barefoot woman, barefoot no more.

That's when that one act of kindness, sparked another.

"Everybody is getting off work and everybody is in their phone," said Kay Brown, a commuter.

On a crowded 3 train in Times Square during peak rush hour, Kay Brown took notice of a perfect stranger, a homeless woman whose weary journey one could only imagine.

"I mean she just had like a tiny little raggedy shirt and like a jacket and her feet, I mean bare feet, not socks, not raggedy shoes, but completely bare feet," Brown said.

Quietly and discreetly Brown says she approached the woman and offered the shoes off her own feet, which happened to be a perfect match!

"She asked me, 'Are you sure?' And I go, 'Yes of course, oh my gosh,' and so she started putting them on and started crying and I know it was amazing and she just put them on and left," Brown said.

It was a brief and touching exchange that left a lasting impression on Brown who planned to walk home in socks, before another man who witnessed everything, offered her an extra pair to go over her own.

"Wouldn't you want somebody to show some compassion towards you and not walk by you or scoff like, what if you were the person in need," Brown said.

Overwhelmed and inspired by the ripple effects of her small gesture, Brown shared the experience with friends and family on Facebook. It's a post that's since gone viral, promoting people around the world to pay it forward.

"Right now there's so many terrible things happening, I mean absolutely terrible things happening, and I wanted to share some positive energy," Brown said. "I wasn't trying to do that to pat my own back, I just wanted to be like this was really cool, this was an awesome moment for me, and I wanted to share with other people. And I can't believe how something so small turned into something so great."