Restoring my faith in humanity....

Wow--here's a story for you!

I've been putting a little money aside here and there so that we could get our chimney cleaned. I had saved up $150.00 and I knew it was going to cost "$104 to $125" (according to the chimney sweep) to get it done. We had the chimney sweep coming out today. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't all that good, as my friend Anita asked me to drive her home from a medical procedure, since she was going to be sedated (she's the one who was widowed in December), which meant that I had to get up early and leave. And I couldn't get DH to wake up, so I had to reschedule the chimney sweep.

I had the $150 in cash, waiting to pay the guy. (I assumed that there would be tax or whatever, so I made sure I had a little extra.) One fifty dollar bill and five twenties. Last night, when I was still at work, I counted it to make sure I had the right amount, then I put it in my back pocket, where I keep my mom's credit card. (I don't carry a purse, as I tend to forget them and lose them, so everything important (there's not usually much) goes in my back pocket).

So this morning (after I rescheduled the chimney sweep) I got up and needed to pick up a prescription for my mom before I went to pick up Anita. I transferred everything from the pockets into my clean pair of jeans and went to the pharmacy. I picked up the prescription and dropped it off at my mom's. Then I went to Anita's (she lives 90 miles away--but close to where I work). Once I was in the city, I decided to put my $150 into the bank so that I wouldn't be tempted to spend it, and it was GONE.

I was pretty positive I had put it into my pocket. But I had been pretty groggy when I woke up, too, so I wasn't absolutely positive. I looked in all the "cubbys" in my car, I looked in my tote bag, I looked under the seat, and under the floor mat. Part of me was thinking that "maybe it fell out at the pharmacy", but I honestly do not lose things often--I can't remember the last time I lost something that was in my pocket like that--no doubt it's been years, so I discounted that.

Then I called DH, figuring that the money must've fallen out when I got dressed, or maybe in the bathroom. Nope. It was kind of embarassing, too, confessing to him that I didn't know what had happened to that money I'd been saving for months...

Once again, I thought about the pharmacy and discounted it. The odds of me losing that amount of money from my pocket were pretty slim, and the odds of anyone finding it and turning it in were even slimmer than that.

But DH just called me and told me that he called the pharmacy, just on a whim and asked if anyone had turned in some money, and lo and behold, they had!!! He was able to tell them that it was a fifty and five twenties, and they told him that an elderly man had found it and turned it in. No, they didn't know the man's name.

So I sat here at work with tears streaming down my face. What are the odds, huh? I feel pretty sheepish for being so careless when the money was so very dear to me. I'll no doubt learn from this, and I'm so grateful for a happy ending. Sometimes you need a little reminder that there are honest people in this world...