Fly in the ointment

After my unintended extended hiatus it feels so good to be back! I missed reading about all the shenanigans and daily happenings from the community. 

(Photo: Google images)

I had an experience at the tail end of the summer that I said I must share. It left a bad taste in my mouth but at the end of the day refuse to allow negativity to overshadow all my awesome experiences.

Has anyone ever prayed for or even gone out hoping that somehow you’d happen upon some money? I certainly have! With today’s cost of living I’m positive that everyone would appreciate a little extra every once in a while....... after all our perks from this community  speak volumes!

Anyway, as my daughter and I walked to the grocery store on a Friday afternoon  we noticed a Japanese man coming towards us while rummaging through his tote. We passed each other without a word being exchanged. We are black. As we continued walking I saw a wallet lying in my direct path. I stopped, picked it up. Did not open it but observed that it had quite a stash of money bulging and sticking out of it.

I said to my daughter, “I wonder whose it could be?” Then I remembered the man who passed us earlier. I told her perhaps it’s his. I asked if she saw what direction he went in and she said yes.

To cut a long story short, she ran behind to see where he went. Found the apartment complex he went in. We did a toss up with which door he may have gone through because she had caught a glimpse. Rang the doorbell to see if it was the same person and enquired if he had lost the wallet.

He recognized we were foreigners and he was very terse with his responses through the intercom. When he finally opened the door after a gazillion minutes, he was obviously quite displeased to see the two black persons he just passed at his door.

I didn’t even bother to try and summon my best Japanese- I proffered the wallet and just asked in English ( a bit cold) if it was his . Apparently he recognized it and only then did his countenance change as he quickly said a thank you- IN ENGLISH! I didn’t even wait around for any other reaction. We left promptly! I was too peeved by this man’s obvious disdain for black foreigners.

My Conclusions: 

1.I always teach my daughter to be honest and as much as I was low on funds that day, I demonstrated to her that principles are principles regardless of situations.

2. Not all persons are the same. Perhaps someone else would have taken the money and dispose of the remaining contents.

3. Foreigners (black ones especially ) are not here as beggars. We are individuals who work and happens to be decent too. There’s no need for anyone to be skeptical of us. However that doesn’t stop anyone from acting indifferent towards us.

So many persons ring my doorbell several times per day and regardless of my experiences or current  feelings I’ve never been cold or rude to anyone.

We operate in a very civilized society and as such I believe our actions should reflect that. It doesn’t hurt or cost anything for us to be kind to each other. 

The least this particular man could have done was to show some gratitude that his belongings were returned to him because had someone else found it he may have never gotten it back, especially in such a heavily trafficked area.

Would you have returned it? Has anything similar ever happened to you?