V K L J

I found a wallet on the ground this morning in the parking lot of my neighborhood stripmall where I buy my $1 cup of coffee on the weekends.  My first instinct was to pick it and up and check to see if there was cash in it.  There was, thankfully, if it was empty I would have left it on the ground.  The rationale here is that when I would return it to it’s rightful owner, they could not accuse me of taking any money.  There was a Mexican ID card in it and I studied it for a minute.  I went into my coffee shop first and scoped the area to see if the guy was there.  He wasn’t and there wasn’t a fresh pot of coffee there either.  I told the shop woman that I’d come back in a minute for a small cup (I’m a regular there, and she and I speak casual Vietnamese to each other even tho she’s Cambodian).

I went into the nearby barbershop and looked around.  I saw the guy. He was cutting someone’s hair.  I asked if he was the name in the wallet and he said he was.  I gave him the wallet.  He sincerely thanked me.  On my way out, walking past the window he nodded in acknowledgment again.  I got my coffee and went to meet up with some friends for ice cream.

I kept thinking about how much of a pain in the ass it would have been for the guy to get a new ID card and stuff, considering he probably wasn’t a citizen (I didnt see any kind of resident alien card, either).  I didn’t bother to count the cash, but I felt there was enough there that would have pissed me off if I lost it.

I guess I’m expecting some kind of karmic reward for the day, but doing the right thing is the reward in itself.