What’s the best thing you’ve ever found randomly on the street?

As a twelve year old, walking through a set of shops and just past a bank , I found a roll of banknotes on the street. It was quite a fat roll, held together with an elastic band.

My action in picking this up was noticed by an old woman walking past me.

At this stage in my life , I was an extremely naive, trusting little girl. I was also quite religious, and certainly gullible. I believed in people , in their honesty, just as I was honest.

My first thoughts were to take the money into the bank, but the old lady approached, and so I held out the roll of notes and asked if they were hers . No prizes for guessing what she said.

As she took the money from my hand, there was no thank you, no relief in her face, and no reward.

She trotted off with a spring in her step.

And when I arrived home and told my mother of the encounter, well, just imagine!

My mother did not share my faith in the honesty of my fellow man or woman. Needless to say, I was not popular that evening .

I look back on that incident now and, though I’ve gotten a lot older , maybe wiser, I still think I did the right thing. The old lady probably needed that money a lot more than my family did.