like a fish needs a bicycle...

one of those nights

so tonight i had one of those little interactions that restored my faith in humanity.

my friend and i had gone to pick up salads after our study session, and when i opened my wallet to pay, i realized one of my credit cards wasn't there. so i did what i often do -- i had a minor internal freakout, but displayed no external signs. i walked back to my room, put down my salad and backpack, and started going through my stuff. i emptied my wallet completely, went through my backpack and my purses, looked through all my jeans. nothing. i thought calmly back to the last time i used that card, and i realized it was 2 nights ago. that would leave plenty of time for someone to go on a shopping spree with my card -- but i hadn't gotten any phone calls from my credit card company since then.

i remembered where i used my card 2 nights ago. one of my friends and i left the library around 11pm the other night to get snacks and drinks at the corner store. so i looked in my wallet and, sure enough, there was the receipt from the store for my animal crackers and yoohoo. i wondered why i would've put my receipt in my wallet, but not my card -- especially since my friend was with me and you'd think she would've noticed if i'd left my card on the counter. so i got online and checked my account activity -- nothing since that transaction at the corner store. slightly relieved, but sitll confused, i went down to the corner store and asked if i had left my card there.

the nice old asian man behind the counter smiled and asked me what it looked like. i just showed him my license and told him to check the name. he pulled my card out from behind the counter and compared it against my card, and after struggling with my name for a little while, he said "ah, kourosh" and handed my card back to me. i smiled, thanked him, and walked home.

walking back, i thought about how disastrous it could've been if someone had stolen my card. my exams start in 5 days, so now would've been a pretty horrendous time to deal with a fiasco like that. i also thought about the chances of recovering my credit card after leaving it at a busy corner store in one of the most crowded parts of one of the biggest cities in the world -- a city that's notorious for street theft. and yet, there it was, 2 days later, being handed back to me politely by a sweet old man.

tonight is one of those nights where i feel slightly better about the human race. seeing some people treat each other as they're supposed to gives me hope that we can all do that someday. that feeling and that hope are definitely welcome in a stressful time like this.

Posted by naseem at April 26, 2006 08:17 PM