The lost is found

With all the bad news in the world, I want to share a good story.  These stories seem hard to come by, but quite often, I think our eyes aren't used to the good.  Or maybe we don't want it.  The dirt sells more.  We love to stick our noses in it. 

Even this blog post won't have as many views because it's a good story.

About a month ago, Dallas' grandparents were making their way back from their snowbird home in Arizona to celebrate their grandson's wedding in Minnesota. 

As they were making their way through security at the airport, Grandpa lost his wallet.  He left it in the tray, and in all the hubbub of body scans, pat downs and shoe removal, it was forgotten.  Grandpa gathered up all his stuff, went to the gate and then realized his wallet wasn't on his person.

A trip back to the security area, left Grandpa empty-handed.  His wallet was gone.  He lost all of his credit cards, personaly identification and $400 cash.  Bummer deal.

We all felt for Grandpa and Grandma as they shared their story at the wedding.  It's a pain to lose all that valuable information, especially when it's during a holiday (Thanksgiving) and you're very busy (grandson's wedding). 

They went back "home" to Arizona after the wedding, having canceled all cards that could possibly further compromise them.

Then the surprise of all surprises came.

 They received a phone call from someone saying they had Grandpa's wallet, and wanted to send it back, all under the condition of anonymity.  Grandpa was grateful that someone would even consider giving it back, and didn't ask many questions. 

He then told the man to take $200, half of the cash that was in his wallet as a reward for returning the wallet, and mostly as a thank you.

The man replied something along the line of, "As I was looking through your wallet, I saw that you were a veteran.  That is thanks enough". 

The man then sent the wallet back, anonymously, with every dollar still in it.

I don't know if this man had a change of heart and felt guilty, or if he just happened upon the wallet and didn't want to be wrongly accused if he returned it. 

It doesn't matter to me.  Of course, I would love to know, but the beauty in this is the unknown.  There is a lot less room for judgment that way.

Whatever the case may be, I'm still encouraged by this story.  It reminds me that it's never to late to do the right thing.