Last Sunday, my teenage daughter and her younger brother walked to the Dollar General at Broad and West Markham near my home in Durham, NC, to buy some candy. When they went to check out, she thought she had left her wallet at home. They returned and we scoured the house; then she walked back to the DG, but they could find no wallet and none had been turned in. Exacerbating the situation, her father had given her her first credit card that weekend (to get her used to using one responsibly before college). I insisted she inform her dad that she lost the credit card ASAP, before someone could use it; but she, no doubt, hoped it would materialize before she had to cross that bridge.

Later that night, I texted Mike, so he could at least keep an eye on the credit card account while we waited for her wallet to turn up. Last night - four days later - Mike lamented that she couldn't drive this weekend because her learner's permit was lost with her wallet, and he said that wasn't the worst of it. She'd lost $40 in that wallet, and that's a lot of money to her. (If you ask me, it's a lot of money to anyone.) Mike figured this was a good thing, since it would likely mean she won't forget the experience.

The credit card had not been used since it was lost, so we figured someone probably found the wallet on a shelf in the DG, took the money, and either threw away the rest or handed it in at the front counter. Since our daughter didn't seem hopeful about looking for her wallet, much less finding it, Mike and I walked to the DG this morning to see if it had turned up.

The man at the register told us to wait while he checked with the manager, who then asked us the name of the i.d. inside. Sure enough, he handed us a navy blue wallet that was taped shut with our daughter's learner's permit across the front. As we walked home in the rain, I told Mike to rip the tape and see if the money was still inside. He said he was waiting 'til we got home but that, if the money was there, he was keeping it as a finder's fee.

Turns out it was $67 and change, not $40. If the credit card and learner's license aren't enough to teach the lesson here, then what could have been the loss of her hard-earned baby-sitting money should be. More importantly, the experience was an unexpected reminder that, regardless of demographics or finances, most people out there are good, and Durham really is a good place to live.