"Lost and Found: A Tale of Compassion"

Generally, my office does not come across lost treasures, but when that happens, it's a good and warm reminder that indeed there are still good-hearted people in this world. One day, a young girl came to our office. She seemed to be on a mission, for her bright eyes shone like the stars.

She was walking to the class and found Rs.500; it belonged to someone, and she promised herself to find the owner, but despite her efforts she could not. The next day she came to us with the money. We put up a notice in our lost-and-found section and did all that was possible to reach the owner, but till date, that money remains stuck in our office drawer, untouched.

Days turned to weeks, and that Rs.500 has begun to fade into the background.
I could still vividly picture a girl coming to our office with tears welling up in her eyes. Her plight was desperate— she could barely afford enough to feed herself, and the weight of the real world was crushing her. With a tremor in her voice, she requested a little more time to gather the funds needed for her fees. This amount was part payment for the college fee and also a partial one at that. She needed Rs.700 more to satisfy her first installment of fees. She was helpless. We tried to be empathetic to her. Suddenly, we remembered that old Rs 500 note we had discarded too long for some good luck to befall her. We gave her the Rs.500 we had, then added Rs. 200 from our pockets to cover her fee.

At first though, she was indeed very apprehensive, with tears running down her cheeks, and insisted that she could not take the money. We urged her to pay it back when she finds a part-time job. Her return smile is worth much, and we can see the gratitude in her eyes as she leaves the office, having her tears wet still.

But those miracles of the universe didn't end there. Within an hour, another girl came to our office with some money in her hand, saying it might have fallen from someone. As we counted, we were astonished to discover seven crisp Rs. 100 notes. We were shocked and asked whether it was a coincidence or just a stroke of luck. Though we had posted in the WhatsApp group of the students about the found money, no one came forward to collect the money till then.

We pondered at that moment the splendor of a kindness wheel coming together. It was like the universe had just completed its cycle. It reminds us that our benign goodwill might spring into unexpected blessings. The experience has shown how living gets interwoven, and it is sheer magic—an insignificant gesture of goodwill that could create ripples and touch people's lives in ways we're never going to comprehend. We gave that girl Rs. 700, which we got, in turn, as a gift. This too came as a sharp reminder that one must never, ever lose hope. No matter how bad things get, change, sharing, and caring are always around.