Lost and Found

We had visitors for lunch today, so this morning, my mom went to a shop to buy roasted chicken, or lechon manok, as we Filipinos like to call it. Because she did not check her bag, little did she know that she left her wallet at the place! Imagine her shock at around 6pm tonight, when someone called at our gate and said, "I'm here to return your red wallet!"

There are still good people left in the world after all! Who would have imagined that in a third-world country with a lot of people in poverty, you would have a lost wallet returned to you? Her wallet contained IDs, an ATM card, cash worth 2,700 Philippine pesos (around US $56), US bills worth 105 dollars, some loose change, and random foreign bank notes. Nothing was taken. The man who returned the wallet even apologized that the cards got messed up because they had to search for our address.

My mom likes to think of it as God returning a favor to us, because a couple of months ago, my dad had picked up a cellular phone that someone left behind in a comfort room at the Bahrain International Airport. Not wanting to give the cellphone to airport staff who might keep it for themselves, my dad took it home, so that we could try to find the owner using the numbers stored in the phone. When he arrived, we were able to immediately pinpoint that the owner was also a Filipino because the phone had a Globe Telecom SIM card. We had to go through a lot of trouble, however, because the phone was locked with a password. So my parents had to bring the phone to a repair shop to have it unlocked. Fortunately, they were able to unlock it. We found the number of the owner's mom in the address book, thus we were able to contact him and send the phone to him. I don't know how many people would have gone through the same trouble to return a cellphone, but it looks like my parents' efforts were not put to waste. Because when it was our turn to lose something, it was also returned with the same effort.

I'd have to say that there are two lessons to be learned from this story. First, don't lock your SIM/cellphone with a PIN! It really is quite useless, because if someone really wants to unlock it, they will still be able to do so. On the other hand, if you lose your phone and it's password-protected, the person who finds it will not be able to easily return it to you. And of course, don't keep anything if it's not yours, especially if it is of value. There is always someone up there watching your actions, after all!