My husband and I recently returned from vacationing in France. While there, we went to one of our favorite Parisian restaurants for their delicious onion soup. Throughout our meal we struck up a conversation with our young male waiter who conveniently spoke perfect English. We finished our meal and said our goodbyes.
We were about fifteen feet from the restaurant when we climbed a few stairs to a concrete sidewalk in a park like setting. There were many people walking by, riding their bikes, or sitting on a short wall that surrounded the area. We had only gotten about three feet from the top of the stairs.
Is that a wallet?
It was upside down with the flap facing the ground. It was brown checkered leather with two metal snaps.
“Look Wally, a wallet,” I said as I picked it up. The front flap was snapped shut.
Inside was a five euro bill and two credit cards bearing an unusual name of the owner.
“I need to go back inside and ask our waiter to help me.”
“I just found this wallet outside, and it has credit cards and euros in it,” I told him. “We’re leaving Paris tomorrow for Strasbourg. Can you help me find the owner?”
He looked at the contents.
“This would have been bad for the owner if someone would have gotten this credit card,” he said as he held up one of the cards.
He took out his cell phone, went on Facebook, and typed in the name.
“Looks like she recently moved to Paris from England according to her posts,” he told me. “She’s from Copenhagen,” he said before he sent her a private message.
“I’ll bring you over to the manager. You can give him the wallet.” He assured me it would be safe.
“Thanks for your help,” I said with a sigh of relief.
Once again I told my story to the manager. He logged in the wallet in a “lost and found” book and told me he would lock it up.
I headed back out and up the stairs to find Wally.
“She just called me back,” the waiter yelled as he found us. “She’s coming to retrieve it later.”
“Thank you so much,” I said as I gave him a big American hug.
Remembering her unusual name, I sent her a private message on Facebook a few days later to make sure she received all the contents.
“Yes,” everything was in there, she replied. “This isn’t the usual response one would find in Paris when someone loses their wallet.”
“You were lucky,” I told her. “I’m a Christian.” She thanked me once again.
I’m sure there are non-Christians who would have done the same thing. But, as Christians, we are always to be lights to the world.
Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.”
Mary Therese Hutchinson 