If found, please return to …

Assume you are walking on the road. You find a wallet on the ground. You pick it up and find that there is a lot of money, credit cards and many other valuable things.  What would you do?

·         Will you go and give it in the nearby police station?

·         Will you just keep it, thinking that you got lucky?

·         Will you put it back where it was, as you do not want to get into any unnecessary problems?

·         Will you try to locate the person, who has lost it?

Most of us would, opt for the last option i.e trying to find out to who it belongs to and return to him.

But now imagine if the wallet does not contain any information that helps you to trace, as to whom it belongs to, then nothing can be done about it. Whatever is lost is lost forever.   If there was a photo id card or some business cards in it, it would be probably easy to find who the wallet belongs to, so that we could call and inform the owner.  So, if there is a mechanism of, “if found, please return to” then the possibility of a person getting back what he/she lost, is much higher. Do you agree?

I learned this lesson, after an interesting incident that happened, about a year back. I had bought a new bike and not yet fitted a luggage box. My house and office are located quiet close by. In the evening when                       I returned home, from office, I looped my laptop bag in the side hand grip handle, near the back seat and rode home. On reaching home, I realised that my bag is lost. It had fallen off somewhere midway, due to some bump on the road.  I immediately rushed back on the same route, but I could not find it anywhere. I felt it was lost or stolen. The bag had my mini laptop worth 15K, Rs.25000/- cash and some other files. In a jiffy, I seemed to have lost it all.

My mind was in a dilemma. Should I complain to the police station? Can the police really help me? However with a faint hope, if someone finds it and gives it in the police station, they can return it to me,  I asked my staff to lodge a complaint in the nearby police station. After about 2 hours this incident happened, I got a phone call from a person, who asked me, “Have I lost a bag”. I anxiously replied, “Yes”. He said that he found it on the road. He picked it up and took it to his house. He then tried to trace, who it belongs to. There was no way he could find. Then he switched on my laptop. He opened my offline mail box and he saw my name and mobile number, in the “sent items” folder. So, he just guessed it must be the owner and called that number.

I felt really lucky. I then enquired the way to his house, went and got it and came back home with mouth filled with thanks and heart filled with joy.

There is a saying, “We do not value light until there is darkness”. The same is true, with our belongings. We do not realise the value of them until it is lost. The joy we get, when we find something that we have lost, is an immense experience.

As a school going kid, we kept losing our pencils, eraser, sharpener etc.  Even as a grown up adult, there are few things we are prone to lose, such as Pens, Keys, Mobile phone, Wallet, Travel baggage, Laptop or Tablet PC, USB drive, Books, and the likes.

Here are a few things you can do, to maximise the chance of it being returned to you, if lost (not stolen).

1.       Try to include your name and mobile number in your key chain.

2.       You can put your home or office phone number (not your mobile number) on the home screen or welcome screen of your mobile phone or tablet pc.

3.       Have a few business cards or personal info card in your wallet and laptop bag.

4.       Make sure your travel bag has a name tag.

5.       Have a word document with your name and address in the desktop screen of your laptop or tablet pc. You can also have the same type of doc in your USB drive.

6.       Make small sticker labels of your name, address and mobile number and stick it to your books and other possessions.

7.       Always include sender’s (your) address in your postal letters, parcels and couriers.

I hope you are not, as careless as me. Even if you are a careful person, these tips will be of help. Losing is like an accident. We never know when and how. It is always good to be on the safer side.

By the way, if anyone of you, has a good tip on how not to lose a PEN, please tell me. I will be grateful.

Happy Reading,

D.Senthil Kannan

Article Dated May 2012