Friday, January 28, 2011

When Anonymity Doesn't Happen

Earlier this week my son in yeshiva found a wallet laying on the ground outside his school. He picked it up, got back on his bike and rode home. It was around 9:30 pm, and he was hungry.

He handed me the wallet and said, "Mom, there's $500 in there." But I didn't notice the money, just all the credit cards. I looked for some way to get in touch with this person because having been in his shoes, I knew it was a matter of time before he cancelled everything. And what a pain that would be.

So we called his gym (not his anymore), one of his banks (card was put on hold), and then we googled him. Hello, right there, on the net, was his email address. I sent him a message. gave him our home phone, and told him his wallet had five bills still in it.

He called back within 15 minutes, and we passed off the wallet. All done. The next day, he wrote me a thank you email, to which I replied "thank you for the mitzvah. Play it forward."

Glad it was over and behind me. But it wasn't exactly behind me. Got a call yesterday from a friend in the community asking for my address. Then she told me the story. A young woman she and her husband have been trying to bring closer to Judaism called her in an excited state. Her trainer (guess who) just told her a miracle story - how a family of Jews had given him back his wallet intact. Then he asked her what a mitzvah was.

Way to go G-d. Bringing this young lady to Judaism just got a whole lot easier. As my oldest would say, "Rock on!"

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