What happened in Edinburgh that restored my faith in humanity?

A few days ago we went to Edinburgh and we saw a lot of famous sights during our time there, we also went for a little bit of shopping and tried some local food tasting but mainly it’s because we had an important appointment there.

Victoria St, Edinburgh

Without further ado, what happened was that we came out from a convenience store after purchasing some drinks (as far as I can recall, it was around 1830-1840) when I realized that my backpack wasn’t even on my “BACK” anymore. I kind of screamed to myself and shouted “Where’s my bag?” and after a second or two it sunk in that my bag was definitely gone.

We didn’t know where to begin looking because I couldn’t tell if it was lost or stolen at that moment. We ran back to the convenience store as that was the last place we were prior to the realization that my bag was missing. We looked all over the store to check if it was there and we even spoke to their security staff to find out if a pink backpack had been handed in. They said that nothing had been handed in and they didn’t notice any unusual behavior but they kindly checked their closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance. The feedback from the security staff after they checked the CCTV was that I entered the store without a backpack on my back!

I calmed myself down because I knew that if I panicked, it would just make everything worse. The next step would be to go back to the other places we’d visited and hope that my bag could be retrieved. We ran for miles, I was already in a phase of denial; wishing and hoping that the person who found it would send me a message or email me but without actually believing that would be the case. I became exhausted because we ran so much but I knew that the two stores we had visited prior to the convenience store were only a few more blocks away.

40 Victoria St, Edinburgh

My husband and I decided to go into two different stores to save time while looking for my backpack. The stores were opposite each other on the same street. We only had 5-10 minutes before both of these stores were closing. Suddenly, Marco called me from the main entrance of the store in which I was in and shouted “Come over to Museum Context!”

Museum Context which is situated at 40 Victoria St in Edinburgh is a lovely three floor Harry Potter memorabilia store. He said that the staff in Museum Context told him that Andrew, the owner of the store, took my backpack home with him to keep it safe and try and contact the owner. I felt blessed, overjoyed and lucky all at once. I didn’t know how I’d be able to thank Andrew enough.

Some would say that I’m a fool because I almost lost  my bag that contains a mixture of expensive and cheap make ups, power bank, lightning cable, medicine for my asthma and allergies, specs, vital documents and most importantly my passport which contains my visas. I will admit that I’m a very forgetful person so I do get really anxious about the possibility of losing my valuables which is why I don’t tend to bring my valuables out with me but on this day I needed to have my passport with me in Edinburgh.

Actual stuff inside my bag that I almost lost

We were waiting outside Museum Context then Andrew arrived after 10 minutes or so. I didn’t know what to say. I was speechless. Andrew told us that he checked the bag and he found my email address in there so he sent an email to let me know that he had my bag. I hadn’t checked my email inbox at this point and it came as a bit of surprise to me.

Nowadays, it’s rare that a person would put in so much effort to return your belongings to you. He could have just thrown the bag in a bin because there’s nothing valuable for anyone except myself in the bag. I think that all of us would agree that it would have been easier to leave the bag somewhere, rather than travelling all the way from his home to the store just to return the bag to me. Yes, you read that correctly, he was already at home and his staff only contacted him just to let him know that the owner of the bag had returned to the store, hence the fact that I’m beyond grateful.

Image courtesy of lifehopeandtruth.com

"Honesty is something you can't wear out. “ -Waylon Jennings

 “We have to stand up for what we believe in, even when we might not be popular for it. Honesty starts with being ourselves, authentic and true to who we are and what we believe in, and that may not always be popular, but it will always let you follow your dreams and your heart.”- Tabatha Coffey

There is one key value that I learned from this incident and that is honesty. I believe that for a person to be the best version of themself, honesty must be a cardinal value to retain in mind. One dilemma is that we grew up in humanity that compensates us for telling lies and reprimands us for being honest. Lying has become a normal habit; it is an accepted norm that people lie even when it would be simpler to tell the truth. Human beings have accepted it as a valid behavior. Honesty is a characteristic that we all admire but then it is habitually forgotten, it has become an extinct value in a human being. Honesty is one of many precious values of a human being. Living life fairly means opening oneself freely and revealing one's real individuality to others. I think that honesty is crucial for binding people together.

To end this lengthy post, I want to say to all of my readers that if in case you find a valuable item sitting around; don’t be scared to check whom it belongs to. If you don’t see any identification then kindly bring it over to lost and found, or maybe report it to the authorities then please do so.

“A good person can make another person good; it means that goodness will elicit goodness in the society; other persons will also be good.” - Bhumibol Adulyadej

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Thank you so much for reading.  Xxx

-    - Jerica