Yesterday I had a very happy surprise, there are still some honest people in the world. Along with a friend, my wife and I were at a beach club in San Pedro De Alcantara for the afternoon and at one point I needed to use the toilet. I carry a pouch for my wallet and phone etc, and had to take it off to use the convenience. There was a small shelf above the seat and so I put the pouch on it while I did my business. At the time, I remember thinking, 'Don't forget it when you leave Roy!'.
On completion, I returned to our lounger table and continued what I was doing, i.e. having a drink and a chat. It was some twenty minutes later that this guy with a clipboard came up to us and, as I thought at the time, a pouch just like mine in his hand. Even then, it still didn't click, and then he asked me if I had lost the pouch, and on touching my belly suddenly noticed the discrepancy. I had not even realised that I left it behind, so naturally I thanked him profusely and reclaimed my belongings.
It later transpired that a waitress had found it in the toilet and looking around, had approached a group of young men that had been drinking for some while and asked them if it belonged to them. One of them immediately said yes, but thankfully she was suspicious and handed it to one of the waiters who looked inside my wallet and found a legalised photocopy of my passport that I keep in there, and then looked around for me.
The attitude of the young men in the bar was more typical of people today, so it was a wonderful surprise to find that honesty is not as dead as one often suspects.
I was once the victim of a very slick pickpocket in Bucharest some years ago with the same pouch, and so I know what it is like to freeze your bank accounts, cancel credit and bank cards and then order new ones, along with documents like driving licences, passport etc. It is a hassle and a great waste of time and effort, but necessary.
Thankfully, at the time, no-one in Romania knew what to do with the credit cards or documents so, finding no money in it they threw the wallet away. Someone found it, and I eventually got it back via the British Embassy's in Bucharest and Amsterdam, but unfortunately, not before I had renewed everything.
Now-a-days of course, thieves know all too well what to do with a credit/bank card, driving licence or passport they have illegally come into possession of. Sad but true!
The events of yesterday have gone a long way to renewing my faith in people, but at the same time impressed on me the necessity of not making the same mistake again. Hopefully I won't.
May thieves rot in hell, and good people go to Heaven.
Roy.
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