I saw an entire booklet of Sodexo coupons lying under my seat this morning on the bus. Entire. Unused. Booklet. Of late, I have been noticing that my own Sodexo coupons seem to magically vanish. I do not recollect eating huge amounts of food (no, I really don’t!) and yet, I am out of coupons by the middle of the month. Seeing the booklet, just innocently sitting there waiting to be picked up made me feel I shouldn’t disappoint it by not picking it up. So I did. The bus was empty at the time. So there was a) no one it could belong to, b) no one who would see me pick it up. I could just slowly slip it into my bag. I’ll be richer by about 1000 bucks. I momentarily dreamt about ordering pizza everyday, till my new booklet is just an empty front and back cover. I could give little treats to my colleagues. Temptation is a sweet, sweet devil. No one would know. Except me. And in that thought of “Except me” I gave up on all the delicious (yum!) dreams that Lady Temptation allowed me. I kept the booklet in my hand. Up for all to see. While I was about to get down, I handed the booklet to the bus driver. He looked very confused. Forgot to even beam up at me (of course, I was expecting a big grin!) But he took it eventually. I alighted. I heard a couple of people sniggering behind me (I had earphones plugged in, but I had turned off the music). They said (to each other) I was a fool to not keep the booklet for myself. Yeah, perhaps in their eyes I was a fool. And yeah, I have often considered myself to be underpaid :P But I have not yet reached a “Beg, Borrow, Steal” stage. When/If I do, I sure hope there are some booklets lying around ;) ;) ;)
________________________________________________________________________ Other instances where I have surprisingly found money (abandoned or otherwise):
- While walking on Pune’s MG Road one evening, a couple of years ago, I found 200 bucks on the road. I gave in to temptation that day. I got a royal scolding from my mother, who is strictly against picking up fallen money off the streets.
- I wore an old pair of jeans to office on a Friday. Suddenly found Rs. 5 in one of the pockets! It looked crumpled like crazy, probably cos I had washed the jeans with the money still in the pockets. But it was still good money. That was the only time I felt 5 bucks could make me feel like a lottery-winner!
