It all started when a customer at a Tim Horton's coffee shop in Winnipeg, Canada decided to spread some holiday cheer by also footing the bill for the next customer in line.

But instead of putting their money away, the customer who just got free coffee chose to use the cash on the next person in line. And, suddenly, an epic "pay it forward" chain had begun.

Once the coffee shop's staff figured out what was going on they did everything they could to keep the generosity going

"They were calling out the numbers, 'We're at 162,' and they made a really big deal of it," explained the store's manager Troy Thompson. "I think that's what helped keep it going because nobody wanted to be the one who broke that streak."

Almost three hours later, the chain ended at 228. How it ended is that the man who had just had his four cups of coffee taken care of decided not to buy the three cups the next person in line had.

While we'd like to dismiss the man as a Grinch he was actually just playing in an important role in the truism that "all good things must come to an end."

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