The Locked Kitchen
When the yeshiva kitchen was locked by mistake, the Rosh Yeshiva quietly fed a hundred and twenty hungry students himself.
Chassidim and talmidim relate that one evening in Yeshivas Porat Yosef, someone locked the kitchen doors by accident. A hundred and twenty bochurim were about to go to sleep hungry, and the lost hours of learning would have been considerable. A senior colleague, Rav Ben Tzion Mutzafi, went to Rav Ben Tzion Abba Shaul and asked what could be done.
The Rosh Yeshiva did not call a meeting. He reached into his own pocket, handed over some money, and asked that one student run to the bakery for pitas while another bought falafel and tomatoes. Soon afterward, a student passing a side room saw the Rosh Yeshiva himself bent over a table, slicing pitas and stuffing them as fast as his hands would go.
Then came the part that stunned the bochurim. The great posek carried the portions out and handed one to each boy, wishing him to enjoy it. When the last portion had been given, he hurried back to his learning. His student later recalled that the yeshiva learned with extra energy that night.
The same man, it is told, once asked his friends on Purim to pray that he should merit to know a single halacha perfectly.
Source: Yated Ne'eman, feature on Rav Ben Tzion Abba Shaul (reprinted on Matzav.com), stories told by his student Rav Ben Tzion Mutzafi; the locked-kitchen episode is also told in Hidabroot's profile of him. No English book edition identified.
Is there a small need near you that everyone assumes somebody else will handle? Today, take care of one. Make the phone call, wash the dishes at the shul kiddush, or put out the chairs for a shiur. Do it without announcing it and without waiting for the right person to appear. Rav Ben Tzion did not think his title placed him above the pita counter, and you need not feel above any small task either. Notice what happens in the room when your help arrives unannounced.