A mystery man found a unique way to perk up Niles.

On Tuesday, a customer at a Niles coffee shop used a $50 bill to pay for $2 worth of coffee and told the owner to use the remaining $48 to pay for coffee orders the rest of the day.

“I asked him, ‘Are you Santa come early?’” said Joyce Bashara, owner of Brew Ha Ha on Broadway Street. “He smiled, thanked me and drove away.”

Bashara said the anonymous donor, a male in his 30s or 40s, ordered a regular coffee at the drive through around 6:10 a.m. He was driving a white Jeep Cherokee, had a clean-cut appearance and was polite.

“I told him I wasn’t going to take a $48 tip and that’s when he told us to keep it and use it to pay for everyone else’s coffee,” she said. “We took him at his word.”

The remaining $48 paid for the orders of 14 more customers, Bashara said.

Patrons were excited and shocked to hear they were getting free coffee, courtesy of a stranger.

“Maybe it will inspire someone else to do something nice,” she said.

Bashara said the act is in line with the motto of the coffee shop: peace, love and coffee.

Bashara and her husband, Michael, bought the business in September from Joyce Freshley, who had owned it for the past eight years. Joyce said she saw the “for sale” sign on a Friday and bought it the following Monday.

“It just felt right,” Joyce said. “It was the quickest decision I’ve ever made and I haven’t regretted a second of it.”

The Basharas live in Buchanan with their daughter, Alexis, 18.