What a terrific story and letter.

Pay it forward, my friend. Pay it forward.

This gives me faith in my fellow human beings.

What the hell was this guy doing walking around with "lots of cash" in his wallet in the first place? Hmm?

Fake.

I dropped my wallet once in a mall in Montreal, on the first day of a vacation, with like $300 Canadian in it. After I realized what I'd done, I miserably went to the mall lost and found desk to find out that someone had turned it in, cash and all.

I always have an alterior motive. Or ulterior. I've found and returned two wallets-fulla-cash in the last 8 months or so. Cyclists can spot 'em in the street more easily than drivers.

@3 Duh, upcoming craigslist purchase. ;)

@3:

Maybe the part where he mentions - in the first sentence - that he was "on (his) way out of town" had something to do with it...

I've found three wallets in the last few years, with credit cards, money, etc. My advice to people is: keep your address on your Driver's License current, and/or put your current phone number in your wallet to minimize your period of anxiety while someone tries to contact you to return your wallet before you have to cancel all your credit cards, etc.

@6 - Don't just leave us hanging. What are your motives?

Sex? Reward? Entry into Heaven?

Also, I don't know if most people realize this, but you can drop any lost wallet into a usps mailbox and the post office will attempt to contact the owner to return it. I wasn't aware of this until someone did if for me a few years ago. It took like a month, but I got it back.

Seattle - even now - is one of the few cities where stuff like this is more common than elsewhere - most of our local crooks even ditch the wallets and purses they steal in the mailbox, once they've stolen the cash and credit cards they want.

I remember when I was in the Army I'd sometimes have between $500 and $2000 in my pocket in cash after coming back to base.

@10 My ulterior motive is to make people love cyclists without ever going near Critical Mass.

Am I the only cynical asshole that thinks the person did indeed do the kindly deed of returning the wallet, but first extracted the cash from it?

Oh what a cynical and jaundiced view of life you have, Geni. You probably don't believe in Santa Claus either.

My first wife dropped her wallet at the Seattle Center once while we were on our way to a Sonics (who?) game. Some nice person found the wallet, helped themselves to the $80 in cash and turned the wallet, drivers license and CCs intact, into lost and found.

@13 - Well that's a darn good reason.

Though I was hoping for something more controversial, such as, Sainthood. :)

Seriously though, kudos to you.

I once had a purse turn up in my mailbox. Apparently of someone who used to live at my address and hadn't changed their ID. Luckily I recognized the pre-transition male photo of a transwoman who worked at a coffee shop I used to frequent. I called the coffee shop and she answered and was shocked to hear that her purse had been found and I knew who she was. Good thing too because otherwise she was on her way down to the DMV to try to convince them to give her a new ID.

Given how terribly jaded, bratty, and bitchy this column (and paper, in general) is, it's so freaking refreshing to see something genuinely sweet and hopeful. You just made my day, stranger and Stranger. Thanks.

Okay--someone must say this. If you're dumb enough to leave you're cash-stuffed wallet on the hood of your car (ever heard of a back pocket?), then.....

@20 I think we're all capable of making a similar mistake.

1) On my way home from the gym I discovered that I'd accidentally left $30 in cash in my locker. To my amazement, someone turned it in to lost & found.

2) My friend Steve was in Berlin and needed to make an ATM withdrawal. Unlike here, in Germany the machine dispenses the cash *before* returning the card; Steve was on autopilot/jet-lagged and walked away from the ATM with his cash but without his card. When he realized what had happened, he went into panic mode: not only could somebody run up all kinds of charges on his card, but he was depending on it for his expenses. He went back to the bank, and someone had turned the card in.

Yes, there are honest people out there.

@5 Canadians are the nicest people on Earth.

You should print this.

Returning the wallet, with all the cash still in tact, bla-di-bla, is what we're all SUPPOSED to do. Dear god, call me an optimist, but I want to believe that a (thin?) majority of "us" would turn it in and make an arrogant assumption that there would be a modest reward?

Doesn't add up.

On the phone the samaritan says he saw the "wallet and tons of cash just tornadoing around on the aurora bridge", but then in the note to the bank he writes, "no cash in it. the neighbors said there was lots but when i got to it there was none." Why did the cash change from something the samaritan saw to a story from the neighbors?

What neighbors live on a bridge? Or did the samaritan take the wallet to the loser's house and talk to those neighbors, and if so how would those neighbors know how much money was in the wallet?

Weird.

This was my friend! Really! It did happen exactly that way, well with more stress and tears involved. There was some cash picked up, she got back some of it, but not nearly all of it. She had so much cash becasue she was heading out of town to Vietnam where she'll be for the next month. Not knowing how easy it would be to get cash in remote areas, she was taking her tips (she's a server) and heading to the airport. It was a giant fiasco, her trip got delayed by a day, but she's there now. With all of the money she had started with.

Whether the man who turned in her wallet kept money or not isn't the point. He still went to her bank, turned in her credit cards, debit card, and ID. When you are heading out of the country, there is more concern about the cards than the cash.

Analyze it all you want. She is now travelling (hopefully having a great time), and all the money she lost came back to her thanks to a very generous family. The story really does have a happy ending.