Several years ago when Daisy Owen lost her purse during a night out with friends, she once thought that she would never get it back. Either someone had found it and raided it for of all her valuables ($300 in cash, her keys, license, and iPhone) or a person had seen it and left it, thinking, “not my problem.”
But Daisy was totally wrong.
A homeless man named Paul Calderbank came across her lost purse. However, he didn’t take any of the cash — though he really needed it. Instead of searching for valuables, Paul began looking for clues: Who owned the purse, and more importantly, how could he get it back to them?
This homeless man began walking the streets asking if anyone had misplaced a purse. But he had to be careful. That’s because if the cops found him with it, they would think he’d stolen it. And he’d feel just as bad if someone claiming to own it took the purse from him wrongfully.
So he wrote a note explaining his intentions.
“Did not want to tell anyone in town because they would have tried to blag me saying its one of their friends’, he wrote. “Can’t trust anyone in town and was worried in case anybody thought I was keeping it.”
“I want to locate the true owner and personally hand all her belongings back to her, because I am a honest person now,” the note continued. “Because to me it feels so good to do the right thing, and there is money in (the) purse and I have not taken a penny.”
Fortunately, Paul was able to find Daisy’s home address. While he was making the long walk to find her, he serendipitously ran into one of her friends. The friend contacted Daisy via Facebook, and she immediately came into town to track him down.
“This man has been above and beyond and found my bag Saturday morning and spent TWO DAYS walking around asking and trying to find me, and was just on his way to my home address to try and return my bag to me personally!” she wrote.
According to Daisy, Paul gave her a renewed “faith in humanity.” She set up a GoFundMe page and is working toward getting him enough money to put a deposit on an apartment.
They ended up raising over $5,000!
It just goes to show that kindness goes a long way and that assuming the worst of people rarely pays off.
