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Retired teacher buys coffee for stranger low on cash — and it's Keith Urban

The former New Jersey teacher thought she was just doing a solid for a regular Joe in need of a couple bucks.
/ Source: TODAY

Ruth Reed figured she was just doing her usual weekly favor for a stranger at her local convenience store when she picked up the tab for a shaggy-haired guy who was a few bucks short on his purchase.

He thanked the retired teacher during their encounter at the Wawa in Medford, New Jersey, on Aug. 3 and said his name was Keith.

Reed didn't realize at first that it was Keith Urban, country music superstar and husband of Nicole Kidman.

He was stopping in for a few items ahead of his tour stop that night in nearby Camden, New Jersey, one day after his Citi Concert performance on TODAY.

"For three years, I have made a resolution to once a week treat someone at Wawa,'' Reed wrote in a Facebook post that was put on Twitter by one of her former students. "Occasionally it happens more than once a week.

"This man was short a few dollars. He asked a lady with him if she had money. I jumped in and said I would pay and explained why. He thanked me and asked my name. I asked him his and he told me it was Keith. I said that he did look like Keith Urban. He said he was."

Reed still wasn't sure even after Urban said he was there with his sister.

"I didn't believe him,'' she wrote. "I asked where Nicole was and who was the lady. He finally said that I could ask his bodyguard. It was then I realized what an idiot I was."

Urban then took a photo with a beaming Reed in the parking lot to thank her for her generosity.

The picture is now the top banner of a local Facebook page for Medford residents.

"After all, today you are just as famous as that guy with his arm on your shoulder,'' one commenter wrote.

Follow TODAY.com writer Scott Stump on Twitter.