L-2: The Lost Wallet

A man was sitting at a table in a busy restaurant. He was enjoying his meal and watching people through the large window on his left-hand side. He took a sip of his drink, while he was thinking about the events of the day. He had no idea that an unexpected thing was going to cause him a lot of troubles.

As he reached into his pocket to pay the bill, panic washed over him. His wallet was missing. He quickly searched through his pockets and his bag, but he couldn’t find it anywhere. He lost it.

He was angry with himself, but he could do nothing about it. The wallet was gone. He just sighed and leaned back in his chair, when a man entered the restaurant. He started looking around the place with a worried expression. His eyes stopped on the man at the window and he walked to his table hesitantly.

“Excuse me, sir. I think I found your wallet outside,” said the stranger. He was holding a brown leather wallet in his hand.

The man at the window immediately recognised his missing wallet. “Oh, thank goodness! I knew I dropped it on my way here! Thank you so much for finding it!”

The stranger smiled and gave the wallet to the man at the table. “No problem. I saw it on the sidewalk and thought it might belong to someone in here. You looked very unhappy and so I asked you first.”

The man at the table was curious. “By the way, did you take a look inside? I had some important documents in there.”

The stranger’s face turned red and he shuffled his feet awkwardly. “Well, yes. I had a look. I wanted to find some ID to return it to the owner.”

John smiled. He was now very relaxed. “Well, I’m glad that you looked inside and found me. I appreciate your honesty.”

“That’s not a problem. I am very happy that I found you. A few years ago, I lost my wallet too. And no one came to give it back to me. I had a lot of problems because of it.”

“I feel really lucky that it was you who found my wallet. How can I thank you for your help? Will you accept some money from me?”

The stranger’s face turned red. “No way. I will not take any money from you. I brought the wallet back to you because I believe that everybody should do that.”

“OK, I understand. But I want to give you something in return. Will you sit down and eat and drink something? Please understand, you really helped me a lot.”

The stranger shook his head and said, “I understand that you feel happy and want to give me something in return. However, I believe that everybody should do the same. I didn’t do anything special. And therefore, I do not want anything in return for it. The wallet was not mine and you needed it back. So I brought it back to you. There’s nothing more to talk about.” said the stranger. Then he said “Good-bye” to the man at the table and quickly left the restaurant.

---

© Sparrow’s English Reader / Level 2, English Reading