Good Samaritan pays for school supplies teacher intended to buy for needy students

(INSIDE EDITION) - A Texas teacher was in line at Walmart, ready to provide a generous 'back to school' gift to her students, but it was the actions of another man that proved to be the good deed of the day.

Sabrina Drude, 23, was preparing to start her second year teaching seventh-grade science in San Antonio.

"A lot of my kids will say they can't afford their school supplies, or they need to wait until their parents (get a) paycheck," Drude told InsideEdition.com. "So I just figured it's not worth trying to make them feel bad, or have them stress over it."

So she and her husband went to their local Walmart and loaded nearly 200 notebooks before approaching the register.

The man behind her, Lester Brown, was purchasing dorm essentials for his college-age daughter and began talking to the couple.

"I asked her, 'What is all that for?'" Brown told InsideEdition.com.

Drude explained even though the school has money for textbooks, most school supplies are paid for by students.

As the cashier finished checking her out, Brown interjected, asking how much the notebooks cost.

The cashier told him $97.80.

"It doesn't make any sense that she should have to buy that," Brown said. "I paid for it. It was the right thing to do."

Immediately, Drude began crying.

"That is one of the sweetest things I ever heard. Most teachers spend hundreds, or thousands, of dollars on their classrooms every year," she said.

"That's when I told her, 'You're a teacher, and you deserve to be recognized,'" Brown said.