Here is a true story that have just happened to a good friend of mine…
The man goes shopping for Easter at the market. It was way past 11 a. m. a but he had enough until 1 o’clock… He walks by the bank and make a cash withdrawal from the ATM to keep him good for a two weeks’ time. In the market, people so-and-so. He gets to a fish shop, comes in and gets craving for some real fresh Danube herrings.
– Put me three pieces.
– 30 lei – says the saleswoman after weighing them.
The man pulls his wallet out of his trousers’ pocket, gives a 50 lei paper and grabs the change with his left hand (as he already had the fish, a small shopping bag and the wallet on the right). With both palms occupied, he comes out (pressed by time and the two people waiting outside the store) and stops at an empty stall, right next to the exit, to organize himself. Once arranged, he moves on to the market.
A few meanders and he decided in front of a booth with beautiful lemons (for the herrings…). The saleswoman “reads him” and takes him directly:
– How many should I put for you?
– Give me five… They both smile… Before the woman weighs the lemons, the man wants to take out his wallet… Grab it where it’s not… He feels like he’s taking it with heat, almost getting faint… The ID card, the bank card, the driver’s license, the health card, the just withdrawn money, they all perished in front of his eyes and they fell apart like smoke in the wind… He barely stutters:
– Ma’am, they stole my wallet…
– Who sir (?!?!) – says the woman – I mean I haven’t seen anyone around you since you’ve been here… There was no one…
– Oh, my God, what am I going to do now?
The other vendors around them also begin:
– There was no one, sir, who could do that, look again on yourself… or maybe you left it at home…
Already incoherent, the man clings to the idea:
– It might… No, no, that I bought this fish…
As if by magic, two young cops appear. Hardly, the buddy explains why he can’t pay for the lemons… And that in his wallet he had his affidavit… and that he knows that soon it’s 1 o’clock…
– Relax sir, we’re not really like that. Where have you been before?
– At the fish shop… And then I stopped here…
– Come with us to the fish shop.
There was no cue… all three enter. The saleswoman sees him, recognizes him and smiles at him:
– Why did you come back?
– Well, you see… my wallet was stolen from me after I bought the herrings…
– It wasn’t stolen from you, sir, here it is! And she hands him a plastic bag with his wallet… Shortly after you left, a gypsy woman came in (I know her, as she’s still coming around and we’re helping her with what we can) and she gave us this wallet she found on the stall by the door… Check it, missing anything?
The man almost to faint a second time… There was nothing missing…
He went back to the woman with lemons, paid and told what had happened. Hearing that, the surrounding vendors began to clap and shout in chorus: “Well done! Congratulations!”
When he got home, the man poured a glass of wine, raised it to his health and everyone’s health, and drank it almost unrelentingly. He pledged that after the pandemic he’d look for the woman to repay her.
He was thinking: “Thank God there are still such people… It means not everything is lost…”
***
We have no choice: we have to admit that when it comes strictly to the social plan of human existence, it all comes down to education. And since formal education is systemically poor, our expectations are limited to “seven years at home”. It looks like sometimes, morally speaking, it’s enough…
Happy Easter!