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Last Tuesday, while on the way to the airport to meet Shannon I stopped at a grocery store to pick up some stuff she would need. It was a place I formerly frequented when we used to live in that part of town, but as we haven't for over a year, it's been awhile since I last walked into the place.
Paying for my purchases required me to whip out my trusty change purse, reminding me of an incident that had occurred there, a few years back, involving the aforementioned purse. It's a good story. I'll tell it to you, shall I?
I had a regular routine when I did my weekly shop in this store, park the car, get the cart, and get on with it. To get the cart, you have to put a quarter in the thingee that unlocks it, and I keep my change, coincidentally, in a change purse. This purse habitually resides in my fanny pack. Now, I used to have a bad habit of neglecting to zip the pack back up properly after I've taken things in and out, and a couple of times I've had stuff fall out while I've been walking around not realizing I'm unzipped, but fortunately, I've mostly caught and retrieved before moving on.
This particular day, however, I did not notice my change purse had slipped out, somewhere in the store, while I was zinging up and down the aisles getting me groceries. I didn't miss the darned thing until I was returning the cart to the stand after having completely finished shopping and stowing, and upon retrieving my quarter was dismayed to discover I no longer had a change purse to put the change in.
I was extremely choked to find it gone; it had about 25 bucks in it; a folded ten dollar bill and an additional 15, give or take, in Loonies, Twonies* and other small change. It wasn't money I could easily afford to throw away at the time. Heck, I wouldn't be too happy about losing that much money even now, but back then, definitely a blow.
Extremely upset and not too optimistic about my chances of success, I rushed back into the store and retraced my steps. I had no idea where or at what point during the twenty minutes or so I'd been in the store I'd actually lost it – if it had been five minutes or fifteen. I was reasonably sure I lost it in the store, but that was all I knew.
A few more minutes of frantic and fruitless scurrying around wound me up even more, at which point I headed for the customer service counter in the faint hope someone had found it and turned it in. I held out even less optimism for this option – it was a generic change purse with no traceable ID, and…it had money in it.
Let's face it, I was dreaming, what were the odds whoever found it would actually turn it in. Hey, we all know everyone is just out for number one, yes? Someone finds free money in a non-descript container with no name or contact number for the owner, they're gonna keep it, right? I mean, why wouldn't they, not like they could give it back or anything?
Right?
Yeah, well, I knew all that, but I had to give it a shot.
The girl at the counter confirmed my worst fears; no one had turned anything in. She listened very politely while I ranted, spewing stuff along the lines of, 'don't know what I was expecting, people suck', yadda yadda, none of it particularly kind, or enlightened, and my parting words to her were:
"I hope they choke on it."
I got two steps away from the counter and something flashed into my mind not only stopping my in my tracks but making me instantly mentally retract all my unkind thoughts. That something was a lesson I'd learned years previously, also involving money, when I was on the other end of the process, and I'll tell you about this one next time.
I had lost something – it had been found by someone else. Maybe that person needed it more than I did, and that's why this had happened. My 'misfortune' could actually be a blessing to someone else. I had to see it that way. Not as a loss, not as something 'bad' that had happened to me, but as something 'good' I had done for someone else.
So, I did. I stopped cursing and started thanking. I hoped my purse had been found by someone who had been helped by the money, and that it had done some good. I blessed the person in my thoughts, and then I let the whole thing go and went on with my day. Went to the dollar store and bought another change purse. Didn't like it as much as the old one, but ah well, replacement secured, lesson learned, move on.
And…I did. As well as completely forgetting about the incident.
Until, a couple of weeks later, when I happened to be at the customer service counter in the same grocery store talking to the same clerk. She took my money for the purchases I'd just made, I was about to leave when she suddenly said:
"Oh, by the way, did you get your change purse back?"
What?
She looked under the counter, and there it was! Where it had been sitting for the last couple of weeks after someone had turned it in not five minutes after I'd been there inquiring after it.
You want to hear the best part? The money was still in it. All of it.
Now, is that not too cool or what? Swear to God, true story! I was so impressed and blown away that this wonderful person, whoever they were had done this incredible thing for me. And you better believe I blessed and thanked them again for their kindness and honesty. The way I started out thinking about them, though, I didn't feel like I deserved it. But they had not only given me back everything I'd originally lost, I came out way farther ahead in the bargain. I was doubly gifted, not only for having what I'd lost returned to me, but I was also given a powerful confirmation there are good and honest people out there. You just have to have faith and think right.
Diogenes was wrong; there are honest men and women in the world. And I have the change purse to prove it.
Do right and you'll never lose.
Phoenix *For those of you who aren't Canadian, which is, I expect, most of you the 'Loonie' is the name given to our dollar coin probably because it's got a loon on it. That would be my guess. When the two dollar coin came out there was some debate as to what it should be colloquially referred to – Dubloonie – my personal favourite, was in the running for awhile, but Twonie eventually won out. Personally I don't know why, the coin has a polar bear on it, not a loon, but there you are. And this concludes our unscheduled, but we hope entertaining Canadian trivia moment, eh? |
