Kindness costs nothing: Photos capture acts of compassion which will melt your heart

Time to put the grim week behind us and reflect on the good that happens in communities around the world. Photo / Imgur

It's been a particularly grim week in the news.

But it's worth being reminded of all the good in the world, and the following acts of kindness will do just that.

In the Netherlands, a mother-of-five on her way to hospital was stunned when two paramedics insisted on staying behind to cook dinner for her children. The two men even washed the dishes before they left.

Elsewhere around the globe, good Samaritans have been captured rescuing injured or distressed wild animals from floods; in one case a tiny fawn, in another, a kitten.

Some gestures are small - the stranger who fed someone's parking meter when he noticed it had run out, for example - while others require more effort, like officers staying behind to cook a hospitalised mother's five children dinner.

Read on for a selection of images that are sure to leave a lump in your throat, and restore a little faith in humanity.